Hard work pays off for Mumfords

An Established History
G.B. Chadd (Holdings), a family run department store business, has owned a variety of retail outlets for the last 100 years. In 2004 the company underwent a period of diversification and the vast majority of their retail business was sold. During this period, Mumfords, a general store in the seaside town of Southwold was retained.

Mumfords sell a wide variety of goods and services, ranging from garden supplies, kitchen and cookware products, hardware and paint supplies, to camping and DIY equipment, together with outdoor clothing, key cutting and a dry cleaning service.

Diversification
The customer base and product range continued to grow from strength to strength, however in 2005 administration problems began to arise.

Amelia Chadd, Manager of Mumfords, recalls, "We were offering approximately 10,000 different stock items from a range of suppliers and we found we were lacking a concrete record of what was in stock at any one time. This proved a particular headache when we were preparing orders for our suppliers as our buyers were simply walking around the shop and estimating what we needed."

Another headache faced by Mumfords was that sales were not itemised and were only classified by department, leaving Mumfords only able to estimate what product ranges were selling well and what was not.

Meeting Customer and Business Needs
Recognising the business needed to run more efficiently to better serve both their own and customer needs, in 2005 Mumford's decided to contact AccuPOS to introduce an EPoS (Electronic Point of Sale) solution in the store. After careful consideration of the problems faced by the retailer due to their extensive product range and multiple departments, AccuPOS installed APX Complete till systems, each equipped with a Metrologic 9540 barcode reader & AccuCount for stock taking.

Mumfords also worked with their suppliers to ensure they could maximise the benefits of the new system, requesting all products including barcodes and deliveries were accompanied by Excel documents which simplified entry onto the system.

Reaping the Rewards
Today each sold item is automatically deducted from the inventory held on the system allowing Mumford's to accurately reorder items at a glance. Amelia is also able to access a detailed list of all the items sold throughout the day, allowing for much more informed decisions regarding what product ranges should be developed in-store moving forward.

"Entering the stock on to the system was a long and laborious process but once that was achieved we had a system that has allowed our business to operate much more efficiently. An unexpected advantage has also been the touch-screen interface, which during our busy summer periods means we can serve our customers much faster."

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