A major space relay across 1500 stores to improve customer proposition and return of space

Tesco Hardlines non- food had grown rapidly in categories such as Home, Electrical, Toys and Stationery, particularly in the Extra format. The use of space and ranging was very inconsistent and skewed towards high sales categories such as Entertainment delivering low margin.

As Head of Merchandise Planning for Hardlines, I was asked to lead a project to relay Hardlines space across all 1500 stores to achieve improved financial return, customer focussed consistent ranging and a sustainable process to manage space. I devised principles based on financial return and customer expectations in the different store formats, creating a hierarchy of categories and adjacency rules. I put in place range building principles based on one mod basic representation, minimum credible display, full offer and destination to guide the Buying and Merchandising teams. Working cross-functionally with Space and Range, Property and Format teams we built an implementation plan a year in advance.

The new rules were then applied by the space team to create the new layouts, investing more space in Stationery and Greetings Cards and Home at the expense of Electricals and Entertainment. To clear obsolete stock in stores, I worked with IT to develop store specific markdown functionality to minimise the cost of clearance. The project was implemented across the whole estate successfully over three weekends. It fuelled LFL sales growth for the next few years and increased return of space by circa 10%. Customer satisfaction ratings on range and NPS also improved.