Karlie Group sees better times ahead

There appears to be light at the end of the tunnel for the Karlie Group, which belongs to a private equity investor. Although the group expects to post negative results for fiscal 2015 in spite of a modest increase in sales in recent months, it believes that the restructuring measures taken will have a positive impact on these results. The measures included standardising the logistics and assortment and cutting a number of jobs. "With the restructuring completed, the companies in the group now have a common assortment for the first time and can enjoy the synergies liberated by this deriving from centralised materials management and logistics. These synergy effects concern cost reduction in these processes and the accompanying increase in margins, along with global planning for goods availability," was the statement that featured in the year-end report for 2014 regarding the restructuring. 

In recent months the assortment has been streamlined and reduced to 9 000 products. A further reduction in the number of items to 7 000 - 7 500 is envisaged in the medium term, although it is intended to continue to cover all pet groups in the future. The products removed from the range are slow-moving goods for the most part. The Karlie Group is promising a host of interesting innovations in the next few months that should push sales back upwards. At the same time, existing ranges are to be optimised and brought up to date. A new catalogue published recently by the company provides an overview of the current assortment on offer. The group appears satisfied with the effect of relocating the majority of the logistics to Geel in Belgium, an operation that is nearly complete now. Over 40 000 pallet spaces are available in Geel. The warehouse in Haaren-Wünneberg will now handle only parcel shipments. "Compared with last year, our delivery capacity has improved by 5 per cent to 90 per cent at the latest assessment. We are expecting to increase this by a few percentage points, however," explains Dominik Müser, CEO of the Karlie Group. Above all, the progress made in standardising the range strikes him as positive. He also regards the new joint inventory management system as another important step away from the crisis.