St Andrews Links Blog

Setting up shop for 2017

It’s that time of year again for the St Andrews Links retail team. 2017 is under way with the height of the season fast approaching. Golf courses might not be at their busiest, but it’s certainly all go for our warehouse, back office, visual merchandise and shop staff.

This is partly because there are so many different processes to go through before our products hit the shelves. Our Retail Department operates on a global scale, which can make setting up for the season a hectic time. This is where organisation and detailed planning are key.

 

Our buying team view and select styles from a range of different collections (a long process, which requires plenty of research). The selected products are then put into detailed spreadsheets with quantities and embroidery instructions and sent onto the supplier. It takes a great deal of back and forth before everything is finalised.

As for our warehouse team, an average day is anything but quiet. From around mid-February, all the spring/summer 2017 clothing collections and golfing accessories are starting to arrive. See above the team hard at work.

Large deliveries arrive to be unpacked, checked and processed. They are then distributed to our five shops as well as globally through our online shop and wholesale businesses. Depending on what product is being delivered, the time scale varies on how long it takes to complete these tasks. For example, if it is a delivery of accessories such as ball markers and divot tools, it can take up to a week of counting as the quantity of product is in the tens of thousands. There is a great deal of administration involved to keep on top of everything, making sure our stock is correct and discrepancy levels kept as low as possible.

Efficiency is very important to us and last year we had an overall company discrepancy level of 0.066%, well below the industry standard.  This is all achieved by a core group of people working as a close knit team with high levels of professionalism.

Once the warehouse team have completed their product duties, they then liaise with the back office team to assess product quality. From there, they work closely with visual merchandising to organise when stock will be delivered to shops for it to be put on display based on agreed colour stories.

It is such a satisfying and rewarding job to see the processes the stock goes through right to the end when it’s on the shop floor ready to be tried on, bought and enjoyed!

 

Words by Cat Singer, Merchandise Administrator