Cover Story
When it comes to Managing stock and inventory, it pays to keep things Tidy
@I_am_word_struck
Michelle Nicol, writer, Wordstruck writing and training Michelle is a copywriter, trainer and brand storyteller who helps businesses tell their story through words that attract attention. A former BBC journalist, she loves nosing out a great story and sharing her writing expertise through training and workshops.
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management and improved customer service.
hether you’re selling individual items or manufacturing part or whole products, keeping track of materials, availability and costs is essential to your bottom line. We talk to two different businesses about the smart ways they keep things tidy when it comes to stock and inventory.
In stock Reorder level Unit cost Llungen Lures Unit price Chris Piha has loved fishing since he was a child. Catching elusive and Margin
aggressive musky in the freshwater lakes and streams of North America was something of a right of passage for him. So, when his favourite bait and lure supplier wanted to step back and spend more time with his family, Chris took the plunge and bought the Llungen Lures business.
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Working together with his wife Cari and best fishing buddy, Matt, Llungen Lures make and supply high quality fishing baits, lures and equipment through 35 retail stores in the USA, plus outlets in Canada, Germany and the Netherlands and through their online store. Managing a massive inventory With individual items made up from many different elements, Chris explains how keeping track is a massive challenge: “It would be insane if we had to manually inventory everything. It would be impossible for us to keep tabs on all the different variations. I probably have 40 different variations of blades alone. All in, I would say we have over 1,000 different pieces.”
Chris says that using TidyStock to manage LLungen Lures inventory is invaluable: “My business would fail without Tidy Stock. The man hours that we would expend managing our inventory, we would not have been able to survive. We’re talking thousands of man hours a year. In order for our business to survive, it was imperative that we had something like this.”
34 10 $14.10 How lessons from the US Airforce $25.00 help in manufacturing 43.6%
Chris balances the LLungen Lures business with an active role serving as an Aircraft Maintenance Officer in the United States Airforce. It may not seem like the most obvious combination of careers, but Chris recognises that similar skills are required in both roles: He
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