Thorntons Graduate Scheme Case Study Supporting Information
What's all this about?
At Thorntons, we are passionate about what we do, so we want the best and brightest graduates to help us continue to make every customer smile. That’s why we want to get you thinking about our business, our challenges and key opportunities. The following few slides give you an overview of our business channels. You will need these to help you complete the first part of the application process.
Retail Channel The Retail Channel consists of circa 280 shops, located in every major national high street and shopping centre in the UK. The Retail estate has been the bedrock of the Thorntons business for many years, but as with most retailers it is now in a state of ongoing transition. We are changing the shape and size of the store portfolio and will close circa 60 - 80 stores over the next few years, focussing on locations where we can sustainably grow profitability. The types of store we operate will evolve, but currently there are four key formats of store - High Street, Mall, Factory Outlet and CafĂŠ. We are in the process of refitting stores to a new format, which is designed to create a more engaging and customer service orientated environment. In conjunction with this, a key opportunity exists for us to deliver exceptional service and personalised gifts that are unique for our customers. As a result, our Retail stores are where the Thorntons brand is best brought to life for our customers and where they have the most meaningful and memorable experience. The Retail channel contributes around 50% of company turnover, which is decreasing as we continue our strategy to rebalance and become an FMCG lead business. That said, the channel will continue to contribute 30%-40% of turnover for the foreseeable future and there are a number of growth opportunities for the Retail business to drive profitability in both existing and new markets.
Commercial Channel The Commercial channel is responsible for ensuring that Thorntons secures sales at our key commercial FMCG accounts such as the Grocers (Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsburys), wholesalers and key Impulse and Convenience stores. Due to changing shopping habits, the commercial channel has been growing rapidly and now accounts for the biggest share of Thorntons sales worth ÂŁ121m. In the nearby future the channel is expected to grow even more with more of the fantastic Thorntons products being listed by our commercial accounts. The Commercial channel team is split into two distinct teams 1. Sales and 2. Customer Marketing team. The sales team manage the relationship with our commercial accounts and look for business growth opportunities. The Customer marketing team support the Sales Team by providing the selling tools and arranging any activities that help to promote our products and get customers engaged with Thorntons brand.
International The international channel is targeted with developing markets across the world. This is achieved through sales directly to grocery customers in key partner countries. We also use agents or distributors to achieve this same aim. Currently the international channel is worth ÂŁ6.1m and is approximately 3% of company turnover. The International business is a very new focus for the company. The business needs to develop new processes and products which can localise our brand to international markets within our overall brand framework. We have to develop brand building techniques in a resource constrained environment and engage with our international partners to develop, sales, profitability and our brand. We have to develop a market engagement strategy for our focus markets to ensure we not only achieve an initial presence but on going sales which we can develop into a sizable market, despite strong local competition and often significant distance challenges with very little brand awareness.
Franchise The Franchise Channel comprises of a team of seven team members and is split into two streams, Franchise Operations and New Store Development for Franchise. Our main role as a team is to the recruit and develop new Franchisees through field based operations, Auditing of stores to maintain brand identity and the training of all new and existing franchisees. Franchise also is responsible for monitoring and processing of claims, communications to stores, forecasting of budgets, stock management including budgeting of seasonal stock, managing credit accounts and implementing sales initiatives to drive sales. The franchise channel turnovers around cÂŁ10 Million per year which equates to 10% of total retail turn over.
E-Commerce Thorntons.co.uk has been established and operational as a transactional website since 1997, with a further revision in October 2009 (personalisation and transactional corporate site), followed by a complete re-development of the site which was released in September 2012. Thorntons.co.uk offers customers the same quality chocolate gifts that they can buy in-store, delivered direct to their own or their friends’ and families’ door. Additional gifting propositions including an extended range of hampers and gift collections and personalised gifts such as Thorntons photo boxes, also available online. Online sales were in excess of £1m by 2000, £2m by 2005, and have built consistently to reach over £5m in 2010. Ambitious growth plans are in place and we are aiming for online sales of £20m by 2016. The site operates in English language only although we do offer international delivery to over 100 countries worldwide. Our site is also popular with ex-pats living overseas looking to send gifts to loved ones based within the UK.