A retailer that has been trading since 1968 supplying Australians with great value camping equipment and hiking gear, required the support of RGIS. The camping store stock over 4000 unique items and make available over 2000 more for special order. The retailer employs over 120 staff in 15 locations across Australia.

REQUIREMENTS
The independent camping store retailer conducted stocktakes in-house, but were looking to outsource this service to utilise internal staff more productively. The retailer still wanted to achieve timely and accurate stocktakes, so approached RGIS to provide the following:

• Reliable auditors with experience within a retail environment
• All stock to be counted in all 15 camping stores, outside of business hours
• Identify variances to expected stock levels
• Provide accurate reporting in the format requested
• Fast and accurate turnaround compared to previous in-house counts

SOLUTION
The independent camping store retailer partnered with RGIS to complete the camping store stocktake project, and RGIS provided the following:

• Following a pilot stocktake, RGIS was able to determine count rates that they were able to achieve in the customer's store layout, and assigned teams based on store size to achieve a successful outcome
• Scheduled experienced RGIS teams to complete full stocktakes within 4-5 hours after the stores were closed for trade
• A process of single scanning each item was introduced during the counts, to ensure split accuracy, as a lot of lines were grouped and not split by the correct colour or size
• The customer's store staff pre-counted loose items such as tent pegs during the day of the stocktake, and reported quantities to RGIS which saved on cost and count duration
• Accuracy checks were completed at all stores
• Reporting was sent directly to the customer after each count by location

RESULTS
The independent camping store retailer found by outsourcing the camping store stocktake project to RGIS, the following results were achieved:

• RGIS worked with the retailer to achieve the goal of accurate, after hours stocktakes across all stores
• Accurately counted over 17,000 SKUs per store, outside of business hours as requested by the customer
• Detailed reports were provided in the format the customer requested for all stores
• With RGIS performing the inventories in all stores, it allowed the customer's staff to concentrate on sales and customer service
• There was no disruption to the business, customers or staff during the inventories
• The retailer was happy with the outcome of their first experience of third party stocktakes. They have already booked all stores in again for next year