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ToolsGroup, a global leader in supply chain planning software, announces that Allopneus, France’s number one tire retailer, has chosen ToolsGroup Service Optimizer 99+ supply chain planning software to optimize inventory and respond ever more swiftly and effectively to customer requirements.
A complex and constrained market
Around 40 million new replacement tires are sold each year in the French tire market (for passenger vehicles, SUVs, vans and motorcycles). Considering all channels, Allopneus is currently the market leader, with sales of 3.7 million tires in 2018 – equating to around 10% of the market.
Unlike its competitors in the online market, Allopneus.com manages its logistics in-house. Products are stored at an 84,000 sqm space in France which manages the distribution of tires across the whole of France and some neighboring countries. Allopneus.com also provides tire fitting services to its customers through a network of 6,000 garages and a fleet of 80 mobile workshops, which can be moved according to customer request (home, office, etc).
“A defining characteristic of the tire market has been an exponential increase in the number of SKUs, driven by innovation from manufacturers – for example four-season tires, new dimensions or new technologies – and by the need to develop specific tires for almost all premium brand vehicles. We also need to stock extremely complex ranges for motorcycles. As a result, we need to have more than 20,000 SKUs in stock,” explains Pierre-Jean Coltat, procurement and planning manager at Allopneus. “Storing tires is becoming more and more complex. With the massive arrival of SUVs on the European market, products are larger. Moreover, the supply cycles of manufacturers who are very far away can be quite long. Therefore, to respond effectively to customers, whose expectations of service and speed are becoming greater than ever, it’s essential to have products in stock, ready to be shipped. This issue is at the heart of our strategy and of our success.”
Inventory management is the key
In the tire market, having the ideal inventory depends on two central criteria: the ability to meet demand with a very high level of reactivity, and the ability to keep products in stock for as little time as possible (less than two months) in order to reduce the burden of storage costs.
“Having products in stock at all times is essential to ensure customer satisfaction and loyalty. Inventory management is the key to quality of service and competitiveness,” emphasises Coltat. “To meet this strategic objective, we have to be able to estimate the needs of consumers accurately and to work in close collaboration with providers. We were therefore looking for the latest generation of technology which would allow us to make our supply chain more dynamic, while reducing our levels of safety stock and limiting disruption.”
Choosing ToolsGroup
Allopneus chose ToolsGroup Service Optimizer 99+ (SO99+) for several reasons, beginning with its functional ability and ToolsGroup’s business expertise in three fundamental areas:
- Calculating sales forecasts
- Calculating and optimizing model stock
- Calculating buying requirements
“ToolsGroup’s experience and success with similar product ranges, featuring very deep classification structures, convinced us that it was the right solution. Other factors were the ease of calibration and modification of calculations via the use of simulation and the fact that ToolsGroup is both a software vendor and an integrator,” adds Coltat.
“Very soon after implementing the ToolsGroup solution we were able to put in place more reliable operational alerts and forecasting, which allow us to be much more reactive. Thanks to these performance increases, we have improved service while optimizing our inventory. This will mean a reduction in our storage area, which will go from 84,000 sqm to 66,000 sqm between now and the first trimester of 2020.”
Mounira Nouasria, ToolsGroup’s sales director for central Europe, comments, “We are proud to be helping a leader like Allopneus.com to optimize its performance and strengthen its position in a highly competitive market. Our planning technology allows Allopneus.com to obtain real and immediate results, and we will continue to work together in the long term to even further improve its service to clients.”
About ToolsGroup
ToolsGroup is how organizations improve product availability while right-sizing inventory, no matter how complex their supply chain is or how much demand changes. In a world that rarely follows the rules, our retail and supply chain planning suite optimizes and automates supply chains from production to purchase, enabling manufacturers, distributors and retailers to be ready for anything. That’s why global leaders like Absolut, BP and Harley-Davidson rely on us year after year. For more information, follow ToolsGroup on LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, or visit www.toolsgroup.com.
