Speaker: Craig Levra, Executive Vice President - Chief Operating Officer, Goodwill Southern California
What are some things you like about the experience of working with CRA?
Craig Levra: From day one, CRA's consistent, focused, timely approach to our critical projects led to outstanding outcome, exceeding our expectations. The team is relentless and knows how to get things done.
What types of projects have you hired CRA for? Describe the impact these projects have had on your business.
Craig Levra: CRA's team took the lead at our direction to help goodwill Southern California implement merchandise planning, replenishment and allocation technology and software as part of an overall broader initiative to integrate handheld scanner devices along with our world class logistics operations, in order to drive comp sales and greatly improve inventory turn. Part of that process was to make sure we had a system in place that allows us to short replan and attack sales of individual items on a by-size, by-color, by-style, by-location— including e Commerce—basis. The result of all that work has led to a 48.1% comp store sales increase over the prior 12 months on only 6% rise in inventory. We're extra extraordinarily happy with the outcome.
In what ways is Cambridge Retail Advisors different from other consulting firms you've used?
Craig Levra: One of the things we found most important in working with Cambridge Retail Advisors was the thoroughness of their approach, combined with the nimbleness that was really unique from an outside advisory firm. They helped us navigate really severe external challenges and ultimately leading us to the desired outcome, ahead of schedule and below budget. And it's to the fact that it's a talented team that knows how to get things done.
Would you recommend CRA to someone else? If so, what should they expect from working with CRA?
Craig Levra: Our entire team, every single functional group— merchandizing, finance, operations, eCommerce, and logistics— all benefitted from CRA's outstanding collaborative approach to solving business problems. The result of that collaborative approach and understanding what each core functional area is required to do to make that portion of the business work. We executed an overall company-wide win for all of our business units. And not only is our team happy and our customers really happy, but our board of directors are ecstatic with the outcomes we achieved, thanks to the tremendous expertise of Cambridge retail advisors.
