USA - Notes from Andy Schofield
“What a difference a day makes” – Is how the song goes and Saturday was singing it!
What looked like it was going to be a difficult Easter week; turned out to be a great week and you all deserve a huge “Well Done!” for your efforts this weekend.
The majority of you did very well and it is encouraging to see that Made to Measure is once again starting to generate some good numbers. It looks like extending the promotions will be paying off for us this year, not only in reducing costs of POS but also (more importantly) increasing sales.
We’ve got to continue to push those extra sales… remember that if footfall is light we have to make sure the customers we do have purchase more.
Keep the pressure on guys and let’s reap those benefits at year end!
HOW ARE WE DOING?
So, how did we look at close of business? Week 12:
RM
AAFES – 87% AGAINST TARGET & 103% LAST YEAR
MCX – 107% AGAINST TARGET & 122% LAST YEAR
MM
AAFES – 294% AGAINST TARGET 558% LAST YEAR
MCX – 172% AGAINST TARGET 101% LAST YEAR
CUMULATIVE YTD
98% AGAINST YEARLY TARGET and 109% AGAINST LAST YEAR
HEAD OFFICE VISIT
Tracey Roberts visited branches with me last week, around the beltway in Washington DC and she got to see first hand some of the challenges and fun we deal with first hand in the Nations capital.
Tracey assisted mangers in re-merchandising their departments and gave some branch specific markdowns to aide in clearing older stock. Tie displays were re-done and shops were re-merchandised… and no one lost a limb!
The whole project went well – until we made the Fort Bragg visit!
Driving through North Carolina on Saturday put us right in the path of several Tornado’s and after narrowly missing one and sitting on interstate 95 for several hours, we finally made it.
What should have been a 5 hour drive turned into an 11 hour trip through every kind of weather imaginable.
To add insult to injury, the entire base was hit hard and closed down on Sunday so we couldn’t get to the exchange.
Thankfully Adelle (Fort Bragg) didn’t suffer any injuries or damage to her house, unlike many who live around the base.
It was quite shocking for me and our head-office visitors to see the devastation that “Wind” did to the area… that’s certainly one trip none of us will forget in a hurry!
Good luck & Good Trading this week. - Andy
