Better Service with Lower Inventories will Help Company Gain Market Share

The Hozelock Group, a subsidiary of the French group Exel Industries, number 2 in Europe in the market of garden products dedicated to watering and treatment of plants, is launching a supply chain planning project with FuturMaster's Demand Planning solutions.

This project, consisting of replacing the current Demand Planning tool, will enable The Hozelock Group to significantly improve the definition of its sales forecasts to improve its service level and support rapid and robust growth while guaranteeing the control of its inventory.

Supply Chain Digest Says...   FuturMaster's Demand Planning module will take this seasonality into account by integrating exogenous data such as weather conditions and market "trends" to adjust sales forecasts. What do you say? Click here to send us your comments   Click here to see reader feedback

The Hozelock Group will deploy the FuturMaster solutions in the first quarter of 2022 in the five entities of the Group: France, UK, Scandinavia, Benelux and Australia. Improving product availability is crucial in The Hozelock Group's strategy to continue to grow by enhancing its service levels and gaining market share.

Improving the service rate to gain new market share

"One of the major challenges of the project we carried out with FuturMaster was to
integrate an "intelligent" solution that would enable a more relevant definition of sales forecasts to guarantee the availability of our products for all our customers. This solution must be able to meet the specific requirements of the market in which we operate. That is to say, a highly seasonal activity that is directly driven by the weather, as well as a real dynamic in terms of range renewal and promotion policies", explains Jérôme Boulmier, Supply Chain Director at Hozelock Exel.

"After launching a call for tender for a planning solution, we shortlisted four software vendors. We chose FuturMaster because they understood our challenges and helped us to develop our needs," Boulmier said.

Increasing the reliability of forecasts in a context of solid seasonality

The Hozelock Group operates in a seasonal gardening market with a stock building
period at their distributors from October to February and peak sales from March to July.

FuturMaster's Demand Planning module will take this seasonality into account by
integrating exogenous data such as weather conditions and market "trends" to adjust sales forecasts.

The stakes associated with the reliability of forecasts are high for The Hozelock Group. More accurate forecasts, taking into account the seasonality of the activity, will also allow the business to optimize its storage costs.

Concerning retailers, the optimization of the service rate induced by more reliable forecasts will make it possible to increase the presence of products in shops and, in fact, to reduce the penalties of delay and the logistic costs associated with partial shipments.

Promote collaboration between teams

The FuturMaster solution will also enable collaborative forecasting between the various departments. Strengthening collaboration both internally and with customers is a significant business challenge for the group. Improving the essential forecasting allows the company to better cope with order peaks, promotions and to manage the launch or end-of-life phases of products with greater precision.

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"Every season, the range of products proposed by Hozelock is enriched by numerous innovations and promotional products. We needed a solution that was collaborative enough to allow us to integrate feedback from the sales and marketing teams on additional volumes to be positioned according to promotional operations and marketing
campaigns," adds Boulmier.

Supporting the group's long-term growth

In the current context of growth, The Hozelock Group is fully aware that having an efficient supply chain organization is fundamental to its continued development.

"We have decided to trust the FuturMaster teams to implement a solution that will allow us to improve the sales forecasts of our products greatly and, as a result, to better manage the global supply chain in the short and medium-term," says Boulmier. "At FuturMaster, we want above all to support our customers in bringing value through
Supply Chain Planning. It is towards this common objective that we have very quickly converged with Hozelock. This ambitious project demonstrates once again that FuturMaster's solutions enable our customers to gain competitive advantages," concludes Yacine Zeroual, Southern Europe General Manager at FuturMaster.

About The Hozelock Group

The Hozelock Group is a subsidiary of the Exel Industries group and is Europe's leading manufacturer of gardening equipment (sprinklers, sprays, technical and water hoses).

Hozelock works daily to simplify the lives of gardeners by proposing innovative, ergonomic and user-friendly watering products. Our watering products are designed in Birmingham, England and manufactured mainly at our two production facilities: Birmingham (England) and Villefranche-sur-Saône (France). This guarantees gardeners long-lasting, high-quality equipment for the regular maintenance of their garden. A whole range of sprayers is also marketed for use in balconies and gardens.

Gardeners design Hozelock for gardeners.

About FuturMaster

Equipped with advanced supply chain planning solutions, based on Artificial Intelligence and optimization
technologies, FuturMaster helps its customers to improve their service level, increase their revenues and profits.
More than 600 customers (representing more than 10,000 users in 90 countries) trust FuturMaster to optimize their
end-to-end supply chain (demand, supply and S&OP) and improve their performance. With more than 26 years of
expertise, FuturMaster solutions have been deployed with world leaders in many sectors, including Sanofi, Lactalis,
Heineken and L'Oréal. Founded in 1994, FuturMaster has offices in France, the UK, Singapore and China, and
distributors in Germany, Australia and Brazil.

www.futurmaster.com

Press Contacts

Cindy Darnaud - + 33 (0) 658282981 – cindy.darnaud@futurmaster.com