Herbert Brown

HERBERT BROWN JEWELLERS VALUE NEW FUTURA RETAIL SOLUTION

Herbert Brown Jewellers has been growing steadily since 1840. Today the company, with its team of 180 employees, has a turnover of £6.5 million from its 19 branches. The family-run business prides itself on its resourcefulness, but had to admit that its ailing in-house retail management system was failing to keep up with the dynamic 21st century company. That’s when they turned to Futura.

Herbert Brown sells 70,000 units across a broad range of price points: from a £1.50 watch battery to a £35,000 ring. Many of these small but highly valuable items are on the move. At any one time a quarter of a million pounds worth of goods are in transit around the Herbert Brown network.

“The information generated by all this movement of merchandise was becoming overwhelming,” said Robert Brown, IT Director and one of the four brothers who run the business. “We are the 6th generation of Browns to manage the business and if there was going to be a 7th , we realised we needed to change!”

After a long search, Herbert Brown decided Futura‟s retail control system was the right way to go. “Tracking our products from purchase order to point of sale is now incredibly straightforward,” said Robert. “Futura answers all those „W‟ questions – what‟s being sold, where and when; and because we know how much each item is selling for, we have a much better basis for our buying decisions.”

According to Robert, stock taking is now more frequent – because it‟s a lot less painful. “We used to have to wade through all the data, regardless of whether it was the same as the previous month. With Futura, it can be set to only report on things that have changed so it makes it easier to spot the trends and opportunities.”

The jewellers also provide short-term loans using clients‟ high value jewellery items as collateral (pawn broking). “The financial services element of what we do makes data security really important. Futura information is accurate and secure within our network.”

Herbert Brown needs comprehensive information on each item so that when an item passes through a pair of hands, responsibility is clear at every stage. The data takes the form of a tiny bar code attached by tamper-proof glue that can withstand the special cleaning materials used on jewellery.

The data is captured and relayed to the Futura system at head office in Leeds. “It‟s less than six months since Futura went live and we‟re already seeing business benefits,” said Robert. “Inventory loss is down to 0.2 per cent. Total stock being held is down, because we can move the right merchandise to the right store without buying in new inventory. With such high value items just a small reduction on the items bought makes a big difference to cash flow. It also reduces the chance of forced discounting.”

Perhaps the biggest impact is on the company‟s culture. “Futura brings greater accountability and this has brought a tighter focus on efficiency throughout the whole organisation. As a stable family business, our staff are very important to us. Being Windows- based means Futura was easy to learn and, so far, the relationship with the UK-based Futura support team is extremely strong.”