Popular high street retail chain Marks and Spencer is utilising tighter supply chain management in its fight against the slowing economy, it has been reported.
The consumer store published operating profits of just £372.4 million for the first half of the year, compared with £488 million the same time last year.
As such, chairman Sir Stuart Rose explained: "Market conditions and consumer confidence declined through the half, leading to reduced profits year on year, due to lower sales and investment in margin.
"Our plan is to manage the business through the economic downturn by tightly controlling costs, capital expenditure, cash flow and stock."
Adapting the management of a supply chain is one of the best ways of creating efficiency and improving profit margins without raising prices for customers.
Companies hoping to make changes to their own supply chain management systems may wish to contact a third-party supply chain management consultancy, which can bring valuable experience to a company's supply chain.
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