Ann Summers

Ann Summers is a family run pleasure retailer with a turnover in excess of £140 million. The Gold brothers, David and Ralph, acquired Ann Summers in 1972. Jacqueline Gold, daughter of David Gold joined the company in 1979 working her way through the company to Chief Executive.

After presenting the party plan concept to the board in 1981, Jacqueline convinced them that it would be a winner. The concept quickly took off to become the most successful Party Plan network in the UK, a position it maintains to this day. This success has translated through to their UK High Street stores where they currently trade from over 150 retail outlets under the Ann Summers and Knickerbox brands including a number of franchises.

The challenge

Ann Summers wanted to identify a clear road map for the role out of new stores, building on their continued success, while understanding their current portfolio performance.

Ann Summers required a clear, sophisticated and pragmatic solution to support investment decisions and acquire the most profitable new locations.

Specifically Ann Summers needed to know:

	Drivers of current successful store performance
	Benchmarking performance of the current portfolio
	Location prioritisation for store expansion - based of Ann Summers market potential
	Potential cannibalisation of existing portfolio

The solution

CACI’s consultative solution was a Store Performance Analysis project delivered within our unique Network Knowledge Database (NKD) market analysis software. This approach identifies the key store performance indicators through consultancy analysis, and deliveries these as an Ann Summers market potential within the Network Knowledge Database (NKD) for sophisticated, yet simple, interrogation and reporting.

Working closely with Ann Summers, CACI analysed store performance to identify the key drivers of successful Ann Summers stores. The solution combined Retail Footprint, CACI’s unique catchment model of retail centre potential, and micro locational factors with CACI and Ann Summers data, to establish variables positively effecting store turnover.

CACI Location Planning Consultants supplied Ann Summers with a list of prioritised locations and consultancy for expansion and to support the decision making process. The solution was embedded into Network Knowledge Database (NKD) market analysis software with customised reports delivered to Ann Summers head office.

The results and benefits:

Ann Summers has used the results as a support tool for all store expansion and acquisition decisions.

This prioritised list of locations now underpins the Ann Summers property strategy, providing senior management and agents a clear target list for maximising returns on the expansion of the portfolio.

John Sutherland, Property Executive says,

“The simple to use but highly effective locations list has supported our expansion program and saved us a great deal of time negotiating with property agents”.

Ian Wallis, Retail Property Director adds,

“Our relationship with CACI and their consultative approach has really supported our expansion plans and helped us understand our business better”.

Outlet turnover and profitability models