Fun
Fun is set for further growth
Fun has had a successful run in a short time. Fun was created in 2000 from a joint venture between the Coeman family, owners of four stores, and retail holding company Mitiska. The five Nolmans family stores were soon added to the group. Opening of a number of new stores resulted in explosive growth to 19 stores in less than one year. Through additional acquisitions and additional new openings, Fun today has 30 stores and 1 experience store.
Streamlining IT after rapid growth
It quickly became apparent that none of the available IT systems, from which to choose after the acquisitions, could cope with such explosive growth. Moreover, Fun wanted to streamline its inventory and purchasing management. “Targeted automation of the purchasing and logistics processes is crucial for a retailer. A mass of complex numerical data must be smoothly converted into clear signals that cannot get lost in the mass,” says Bart De Beuker, IT director at Fun.
Complexity in logistics
“As a leisure retailer, we are highly seasonal. Celebrations like Carnival, Halloween, Easter, St. Nicholas and Christmas are peak moments with their own product offerings,” said Bart De Beuker. “That diversity makes for complex logistics: we sell more than 50,000 different items, of which about one-third are replaced in the assortment each year. The nature of the goods is also very diverse, ranging from small writing utensils to a complete garden set.”
Choosing Dynamics NAV Again
Fun put together a set of specifications and evaluated a series of potential suppliers and partners. Bart De Beuker: “Retail automation is quite specific. So a bunch of candidates were quickly dropped. We quickly arrived at the Microsoft Dynamics NAV package. We especially liked the simple structure and strong integration of the various modules. Moreover, we had already been working for a year with the Microsoft Dynamics NAV accounting module. We chose Microsoft specialist TCOG as our implementation partner because of their experience and knowledge in retail.”
Results and future
“Thanks to Microsoft Dynamics NAV and TCOG, today we have more reliable inventory data and better inventory management,” said Bart De Beuker. “Because of a better substantiated purchase, our stock rotation also accelerated. We also have reliable reports and statistics on our activities. Among other things, this is very useful in calculating our profit margins per item, in valuing our stock and in invoice control.”
