Wilko

About

Wilkinson founded in 1930 as Wilkinson Cash Stores by James Kemsey Wilkinson. The company has remained largely in the hands of the founding family.

The Wilkinson product range concentrates on household essentials, including homewares, textiles, DIY, cleaning products, health and beauty lines, stationery, confectionery, pet products and kitchen and bathroom goods. A large proportion of the range is made up of own-label products sold under the Wilko brand. Seasonal ranges are introduced on a rotational basis, with garden tools and plants in summer and Christmas decorations from September to January.

Wilko take huge pride in what they do – and great joy in it too. Whether it’s in their Head Office in Worksop, one of their huge Distribution Centres in South Wales or Worksop, or their national retail network of 400+ stores, the Wilko team are all part of a family-run business that’s growing…and growing.

Background

Wilkinson needed alternatives to spreadsheets and emails to manage hundreds of projects launching in store. With critical paths starting up to 60 weeks from launch in store and hundreds of tasks to be disseminated and managed across 25 departments – traditional tools were not able to meet this need.

Solution

Wilkinson implemented RMS’ Activity Planner solution. ‘Trading Planner’, as they call it, enables them to manage seasonal change, layout changes and range reviews across the enterprise. Using best practice critical path templates, departments are able to collaborate, project managers can proactively manage so projects are launched right first time into store.