Chief Executive Officer’s Report / Speed and efficiency

Improving efficiency and speed-to-market

Over the last four years we have invested over half a billion dollars in building, amongst other things, a world-class operating platform. This includes a fast, efficient, low-cost supply chain which affords us a real competitive advantage by enabling us to offer customers compelling value and deliver strong returns to shareholders. Importantly, our existing supply chain is able to support over 100 stores, positioning us well as we move into the exciting growth stage ahead.

Retail, and in particular fashion retail, is about the fast versus the slow. We continue to improve our speed to market, particularly with our Myer Exclusive Brands, but we know we need to get faster, respond quicker to fashion trends and customer preferences. A recent enhancement in this area has been the implementation of a web-based product development tool to shorten our product lead-times. We have made major improvements in allocating the right stock to the right stores based on customer profiling and buying patterns, which is improving our in-stock position and inventory management. We continue to fine-tune our supply chain, working collaboratively with our suppliers to deliver incremental improvements and benefits, in particular in areas like forecasting, which makes it easier for suppliers to anticipate demand, and replenish stock more quickly.

During the year we have made significant progress towards the last of our major transformation projects. We have invested approximately $100 million in a new point-of-sale system, which will see some 4,000 new point-of-sale registers installed in all Myer stores by Christmas this year. The new system reduces transaction times, provides real-time information about stock levels and availability, and most importantly gives our team members more time to serve customers to help drive real improvements in customer service.

We have also installed 6,300 CCTV cameras across all Myer stores and, together with initiatives including electronic article surveillance tags, fitting room controls, improved communication and compliance, we have significantly reduced shrinkage, which is stock lost largely due to theft.

As part of our commitment to minimising the impact of our operations on the environment, we are focused on being more efficient in our use of energy, as well as reducing packaging and waste across the business. Myer is a signatory to the National Packaging Covenant, which reflects Myer’s commitment to reducing the environmental impact of consumer packaging waste. Our new support office was awarded a 5‑star Green Star office design rating by the Green Building Council of Australia, and contains a number of innovative energy and water saving initiatives, as well as numerous waste reduction and recycling features.