Overview
Peacocks are a leading UK fashion value retailer offering the right, on trend fashions for all the family at unbeatable value by combining quality, style and low prices for womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, footwear and accessories.
The secret of Peacock's success is its ability to react quickly to fashion trends at fantastic prices delivering fast value fashion to its customers day in and day out. Between 30 and 50 new womenswear lines arrive in store every week. This is further endorsed by the fact that Peacocks has been recognised externally, winning awards such as the Drapers Value Footwear Retailer of the Year 2006 and Best Value Retailer of the Year 2005.
Testimonial
Our partnership with de Poel has not only delivered significant cost savings on temporary agency staff in the transport and warehouse sectors of our business but has enabled us to successfully harness and manage temporary spend across the company.
Through the implementation of their e-tips® timesheet and invoice processing system, de Poel has given us a clear picture of temporary agency spend, complete with bespoke company reports and easily accessible management information. The system delivers a single electronic weekly invoice which has noticeably streamlined our administrative procedures and ensured efficiency and accuracy across agency payments.
Case Study
Peacocks are a leading UK fashion value retailer offering trendy fashions for all the family at unbeatable value by combining quality, style and low prices for womenswear, menswear, childrenswear, footwear and accessories.
The secret of Peacock's success is its ability to react quickly to fashion trends at fantastic prices delivering fast value fashion to its customers day in and day out. Between 30 and 50 new womenswear lines arrive in store every week. This is further endorsed by the fact that Peacocks has been recognised externally, winning awards such as the Drapers Value Footwear Retailer of the Year 2006 and Best Value Retailer of the Year 2005.
Peacocks has over 500 stores throughout the UK and 76 international stores in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
To accommodate seasonal demands Peacocks operate with a significant temporary agency workforce. In line with the companies efficient operation Peacocks had already conducted an analysis of their temporary spend and subsequently reduced agency margins and standardised pay rates.
However, Peacocks appointed de Poel to further analyse their temporary agency spend, as de Poel operate on a no fee basis and only take a percentage of savings achieved, there would be no cost incurred.
Approach / recommendations
An in depth analysis of invoices and timesheets, over a 13 week period, from January to March, which highlighted small variances pay and charge rates being applied by some agencies. de Poel's analysis report detailed:
- Site rates and spend summary, this identified accurate spend per site and the composite rate structure.
- Pricing summary, this detailed current pay rates (sourced from existing agencies) and recommended rate by location and skill set, providing a standard matrix for cleaners, and warehouse operatives etc.
- Savings overview, highlighting savings
- Proposed preferred agency panel based on skill sets and geographical coverage
- Proposed service agreements with key performance indicators to enable agencies to be measured on service levels.
- Introduction of e-tips® invoice and timesheet processing software, removing the transactional cost of processing invoices.
Results
Peacocks approved the proposed solution which achieved:
- 3.3% gross cost savings delivered on annual temporary agency spend
- A new preferred agency panel, operating with fixed pay and charge rates
- Service agreements, with the ability to measure agency performance
- Reduction of multiple invoices to 52 a year, invoice accuracy of 99%
- Real time visibility, management information and control over spend
Summary
Peacocks were delighted with the 3.3% identified cost savings but more importantly found the introduction of e-tips® to be hugely beneficial in streamlining their processes
