Exclusive interview with Head of Supply Chain at Homebase

Homebase is implementing a more attentive supply chain strategy and in particular a rigorous stock transformation programme, in order to thrive as a multichannel retailer.

The company, which is part of the wider Home Retail Group alongside other famous British brands such as Argos and Habitat, has admittedly reduced the number of its physical stores. But the company stressed this is not due to poor performance. In fact, Homebase has seen the percentage of online sales grow and they are building an infrastructure to support a sizeable increase in its total participation.

This has necessitated a change in the current operation and as a result customers can order a product online which then gets directly delivered from the distribution centre without the need for a retail store involvement at any point in the journey.

Chris Warn, Head of Supply Chain at Homebase, said: “It’s a rapidly changing retail landscape in terms of customers’ behaviours and expectations. I think they’re very much in a space of wanting to buy what they want, when they want it, from wherever they want it, expecting to have it delivered to wherever they want it. This is obviously changing significantly from the traditional bricks and mortar type model that stood unchanged for so long in the past."

Read the full interview with Chris Warn in the latest issue of Supply Chain Digital.