Footasylum
The Client
Our client is the UK’s one-stop-shop for the latest fashion and footwear and they are official stockists of the biggest names in sportswear and urban apparel with 53 stores throughout the UK.
Requirement
Utilities are frequently a problem for a national multi-site retailer. The many issues that can arise with supply can be daunting and the amount of project management it takes to ensure control and management of this essential business resource can be draining. Our client commissioned DB Water to review their retail portfolio’s water costs and also research and deal with the many different changes across multiple accounts which were taking an inordinate amount of their time to deal with.
What DB Water did
Upon review, DB Water found that there were numerous improvements that could be made, all of which included significant cost savings. Multiple accounts were consolidated and multiple suppliers were rationalised and reduced to one primary supplier. Billing was corrected and a new contract was negotiated for all our client’s retail sites within Scotland. We are now working on the English based sites portfolio.
Outcome for Client
DB Water is in the process of reviewing this client’s English portfolio and we have identified further savings and consolidation which is earmarked for April 2017 when water deregulation in England commences. This will mean:
- DB Water will act as a single point of contact for all site moves and billing validation
- Lowering the number of water suppliers from 15 to 1
- Massively reducing billing UK wide — reducing the processing of 224 invoices per year to 12 saving a further £13,780 in transactional costs. (£65.00 per invoice by ICAEW)
- One key DB Water account manager and a named office contact will manage all water issues as well as assisting with opening new sites/closing
stores, etc.