Internship report on Next
Submitted by Harmeet Singh
Submitted to Ms Gurkiran
Objective To
take an overview of all the departments in Next. To study the work culture in a buying house. To relate my theoritical knowledge with practical work culture.
NEXT
The Next retail chain was launched in February 1982 and the first store opened with an exclusive coordinated collection of stylish clothes, shoes and accessories for women. Today Next trades from more than 480 stores in the UK and Eire and over 140 franchise stores overseas. Over the last few years several larger format stores have opened across the UK and, in October 2005, Next opened the anchor store at the Manchester Centre with a store in excess of 80,000 square feet.
Work flow Start Design theory is set
Sample are made with their specification sheet in which all the details are mentioned Selection meeting is done
Locates the supplier for the selected styles.
Proto samples are made
If approved
If not approved
NSL UK NSL Gurgaon
Factory
3 Buying samples
Revised proto samples
Final selection Costing Lead time Purchase order
Route is decided Pre contract P&P sheet
White seal
Q.C file handover
Black seal Pre progress meeting
Pilot run samples
Gold seal samples
Shipment
Product development stage Product development stage is a very initial stage in this stage designs are selected by NSL buyers. Product development stage is basically a order booking stage.
Design
theory
Selection meeting
Approval received Meeting
Buying samples
Final selection
Shipping
Main documents involved in shipping are: Commercial invoice Packing list Certificate of origin GSP document Shipment cost
•Shipment cost is decided in advance and if there is any delay in shipment then The freight cost (whether air or sea shipment) is borne by the supplier according to delay in shipment. : •If the shipment is delayed by 5 days then the freight is taken as 50/50 •If the shipment is delayed by 5/10 days then the freight is considered to be 100% which means the total freight cost will be borne by NSL supplier.
Discounts in case of delayed shipment If the shipment is delayed by 5 days then out of the total consignment 5% is deducted as discount
If the shipment is delayed by 5-10 days then out of the total consignment 10% is deducted as discount. •When the whole consignment is done as per Purchase order then the whole consignment is sent to Jenna and company for inspection . Some of the reasons for rejection of shipment are as follows •Incorrect fit measurements •Torn piece •Wrong ply carton.
If the shipment is passed then it will be finally shipped to UK Leeds port. There are three modes of shipment By air By sea By air/sea Air shipment generally takes 5-6 days Sea shipment generally takes 25-27 days Air/sea shipment is that in which half of the shipment is by air and half by sea. The time duration taken in this mode of shipment depends. Charges by Jenna Jenna charges Rs 105 per kg for the whole consignment and other nominal freight charges. Container size in case of GOH (garment on hanger) shipment LD3 – 600-700 PC The basic measurements of LD3 container size are 156*153*163 cm The total weight of LD3 container size is 1588 kg LD6 – 1200 -1500 pc The basic measurements of LD6 size are 162.5*317.5*350 cm The total weight of LD6 container size is 3174 kg
Procedure of making payment to supplier After the shipment reaches NSL warehouse then the buyer after checking it ,mails all the documents back to the vendor and confirms by mail. After receiving the documents vendors sends them to NSL Delhi office. NSL Delhi office team sends the documents to NSL Hong Kong finance Team which makes the payment to the vendor with in 30-32 days.
Recession Recession is a general slowdown in economic activity over a sustained period of time, or a business cycle contraction. It’s a period during which business activity drops significantly. High unemployment rates and deflation often accompany a depression Deflation - A decline in general price levels, often caused by a reduction in the supply of money or credit. Unemployment - It refers to the situation in which a work force actively seeking jobs remains unhired.
Impacts of recession on next sourcing Job cuts
Recession has widely effected NSL by job cuts and lay offs.
With increasing pressures NSL has already slashed 1000 jobs and around hundreds of lay offs leaving a large number of work force unemployed.
Sales plunged by more than 15% after this Christmas forcing NSL to shut 28 shops worldwide which slashed around 250 jobs and many lay offs. 400 300 200 100 0 1st Qtr
2nd Qtr
3rd Qtr
During the first quarter after Christmas job cuts rose to 100 and after march the rate rose to around 220 and then nearby 310 after 2nd quarter
Less order to suppliers
Less Demand and orders placement with suppliers have a positive relation . Suppliers had to suffer a lot because of fewer orders.
Recession has widely affected the sales figures of NEXT SOURCING.
Sales figures plunged by more than 15% from 10 Billion pounds.
With less sales figures and less scopes of improvement. NSL could not place bulk orders with the suppliers.
From the time after Christmas it has been noticed that NSL is placing orders of only repeated styles.
Reduced profit margins
Decreasing sales was accompanied by reduced profit margin. NSL had to decrease the margins from its orders due to declining sales figures. Profits of NSL slumped to below 60 million pounds having topped 1 billion pounds last fiscal year. Reduction in profit margins is seen in clothing as well as non clothing department ROCE ratios of previous years 2007 – 74% 2008- 62 % 2009- 55% 80 60
RO C E RA T E
40 20 0 2007
2008
2009
More cancellation of orders.
Last few moths had been the most unpredictable time for Next sourcing with changing market needs and decreasing demand the company suffered huge losses. According to NSL Hong Kong finance team NSL had to cancel lot of placed orders with companies. Order cancellation percentage rose from 8% to 18 % this season. NSL generally makes future forecasts for sales and places orders with the factories accordingly, but due to bad times all the future forecasts went wrong and the company had to suffer losses in the form of claims to factories. Claims are settled by Hong Kong by finance team. If the fabric is cut and then orders get cancelled then the NSL team has to refund all the expenses bared by the suppliers.
Strategies Introducing low fashion merchandise Due to increasing difficulties due to decreasing sales figure the company had to introduce low fashion merchandise in a price range between 8 pounds to 15 pounds. NSL had to concentrate on middle age working males and females who want dress to go to work for a reasonable price. The acquisition of Lipsy limited helped the company to introduce new low fashionable merchandise in the stores
Giving discounts out of margins Due to increasing competition and decreasing demands NSL had to introduce many new promotional schemes and discounts to increase demand NSL usually keeps margins according to the style and NSL decreased the margins at a particular rate to give discounts to the customers
By adopting this strategy the company was able to attract new customers who are looking for cheap bargains
Closing non profitable stores NEXT decided to modernize it, by closing some unprofitable stores and extensively upgrading and enlarging others, NSL could not help with the increasing costs of operation for advertising purposes due to the less demand
An idea of closing non profitable stores and expanding the work cycle of other profitable stores helped the company to expand a sales figure by a certain percentage.
Branding Branding is one of the important tools to fight the recession because it brings loyalty and attract customers as they get convinced and do not want to take the risk of switching and trying other brands Next planned to start collecting information about the purchases of its customers and after that rewarding them with points, which are converted into vouchers
Advertising and sales promotion can not be used in space of branding
In facing another challenging year, there are four points that NEXT would like to re-emphasize:
Consumer environment will remain difficult for six months. Next is well placed to weather the storm with high net margins, a strong balance sheet, committed long term funding and positive cash flows. NEXT expects group net margins to remain above 10% and our internal profit expectations to be in line with current market consensus. NEXT will never compromise with the quality of its products