Renewal plan for Focus

The company is part of the Focus Wickes group, the number two DIY retailer in the United Kingdom, and is itself an amalgamation of the old Focus business with Do It All and Great Mills. Now the company is working to strengthen the sole remaining brand platform.
As managing director Steve Johnson says, Focus has to accomplish the biggest integration that the industry has ever known. In his words, “It has been a very successful one. We recognised that improved professionalism throughout the whole company is the best way to ensure that the business continues to develop in the right way for us. Focus has grown rapidly by acquisition to become a DIY retailer of 280 stores – and now we must do things in a new way.”
The introduction of category management is enabling Focus to comprehensively review both ranges and suppliers.
Steve Johnson joined Focus in January, coming from department store retailer GUS and the grocery chain Asda. Since his arrival he has appointed a largely new management team at Focus. These new appointees bring with them a wealth of experience from other retailers. They include the new trading director Justin Farrington-Smith, who comes from the cash & carry store Bookers and grocery retailer Safeway before that; the new trading services controller Chris Jacks from Asda; core DIY controller Ian Rodger, previously at Woolworths; and gardening controller Richard Board from Bookers.
Steve Johnson, managing director of Focus since January.
Focus’s plans to develop the offer and renew the DIY stores are being carried out in conjunction with the introduction of a category management system. Category management is a retail concept which involves breaking down the individual product categories into sub-categories, each of which is allotted to a team responsible for trading, merchandising, marketing and inventory management. Focus has already begun to phase in category management, a process which will involve working even more closely with suppliers and result in some of them ultimately becoming “category champions”.
The company is currently carrying out a comprehensive range review. In the words of Justin Farrington-Smith, this will lead to “Eliminating or drastically reducing the offer in some peripheral areas such as pets. We will expand the offer in areas that we believe can become destination categories in local catchments (such as lighting), test new products, and concentrate on the creation of “hero” product ran-ges. As part of the process of achieving our objectives we are reviewing our supplier base.”
Focus’s new senior trading team. Left, top to bottom: Justin Farrington-Smith, Ian Rodger, Chris Jacks, David Patten; right, top to bottom: Tony Cronin, Andy Brown, Richard Board.
The decision to do away with the pet sector is to be implemented by October 2004, though Focus, in common with other retailers, may well include bulk pet foods as part of the garden offer.
An interesting new direction in procurement, which has also been tried by other DIY retailers, is the e-mail auction. This enables suppliers all over the world to bid for business with Focus. So far such auctions have been carried out in a number of different product categories, and it is expected to achieve a total of 45 by the end of 2004.