LAURA ASHLEY HOLDINGS

Presented By
Amit Mandhanya
Sateesh VKD
Pallavi Verma
Uday Shankar
HISTORY
 Barnard & Laura Ashley-1953
tea towels and scarves
 Ashley Mountney ltd-1954
first companyve
 Two apron dresses-1966
first clothing item
 Moved to direct retailing
goods produced for own shop.
Contd.
 Vertically integrated business
embracing design, fabric, printing,
clothing, manufacture and retailing.
 Design philosophy rooted traditional
English country values.
 Excellent IT capability
 Shops – (EPOS) SYSTEM
ACQUISITION AND
MANUFACTURING INVESTMENT
 Series of acquisition-
Sandringham leather goods ltd
Willis and Geiger
Penhaligons ltd
 Manufacturing Investment
textile factory, Vinyl wallpaper
plant, computer aided design system.
REORGANISATION AND RETAIL
DEVELOPMENTS
 Group restructure -7 divisions
 Group reduced its dependency on own manufacturing
activities.
 LA Mother child shops-6 (1987)
further expansion in Europe and UK.
 LA Homes-shops
 Fifty units shops by 1992-as target
 In UK and Ireland LA shop outlet increased from 87 to
182
 Mail order centre in Newton-1987
RETRENCHMENT AND DIFFICULT
TIMES AT LAURA ASHLEY
 Problem with Britain’s economy
 First fall in profits-1989
 Restructure – management
 Insular family culture
 The rise of the Aeon
 Parting with business not core to the
LA brand
 Confidence building
1991- LAURA ASHLEY Brand Name

Corporate – level Strategy:

 New Corporate Structure

 Group Marketing Design
 Amalgamation of UK & Continental
Europe Retail Division
 Group Operations Division
Group Marketing Design

 Marketing of Brand Laura Ashley

 Designing and sourcing products
 To satisfy consumer expectancy
Amalgamation of UK & Continental
Europe Retail Division

 To reduce expenditure
 To obtain synergy from shared
marketing
 To retain regional marketing focus
Group Operations Division

 To co–ordinate logistical aspects

 To move product from supplier to
retail
 To accommodate in-house
manufacturing
 CEO

European Group Group

NA Retail Finance
Retail Marketing Operations
Jim Maxmin – New CEO

 Visited Laura Ashley manufacturing

units, Stores around the world
 Problems:
 Complexity, Bureaucracy, Impotent
to act
 Too many strategic units(22)
 No integration of Key Functions
Simplify, Focus and Act

Reorganization Programme
 Remove 100 management jobs

 Upgrade & Unify computer systems

 Group to run as International Business

 Global Operations Executive (GOE)

 Market Research – Very strong

customer Loyality
Simplify, Focus and Act
 Week of road shows for senior
managers
 Senior Managers briefed staff
 Through staff News Paper
 Empowering Employees to enhance
customer service
 Incentive Schemes
Simplify, Focus and Act
 Andrew Higginson – Finance Director
 Denise Lincoln – Global HR Director
 Management Development
Programme in place
 Significant change in Recruitment,
Training
Strategic alliance
Globalalliance in 1992 – Laura Ashley
and Federal express business logistics

 Shift from complex, costly, inefficient

to simplify, focus, act prog.

Listed benefits
10-12% saving in distribution cost

Access to the global system

Improvement in customer service

Focus on areas of competence

 Recovery from 6.7 m pound loss to a profit of
2.7 m pound
 Problems in USA
 No standard shop operating system
 Managers in UK more capable than those in
USA
 Change over from Mr Jim Maxmim to Mr Hugh
Blakeway
 Company faces losses in the 1st half of the
year
Back to basics
 New management team now emphasized on
tackling costs by cutting jobs and rationalizing
offices.
 Sales to overheads ratio =14 % , for

competitors it was 10%

 44 million central overhead costs

 The product range needed to be

rationalized. was too broad)

June 1995 –Anne Iverson joins as
chief executive

 As the M.D. she had revitalized the ailing ‘Mothercare’

 September: wants to bring the design ,buying and
merchandising functions under one roof, reducing
range by 25%.
 stressed on a unified look for all the ranges or a
‘single point of view’
 Groups lacked ‘clear line of accountability’
 Supply chain needs to be made efficient, store
portfolio to be reviewed.
Return to profit
 The turnaround would still take 2 to 3 years.
 Expansion Programme in Us and UK. But not in Europe
 Plans to expand the groups sales in home furnishings and reduce the
garment element accordingly
 Store portfolio to be reshaped
 Manufacturing plant at Wales to be overhauled
 1100 jobs to be reduced to 700
 Cost savings of 2 to 3 m.
 Costs to be cut in distribution network
 Mail order business to be re launched
 Company has fallen into ‘good retail retails’ ?