January 13, 2016 Industry news
Jacky Broomhead, Market Development Manager – Apparel at GS1 UK speaks to Emily Stow, the 2015 Apparel business champion award winner, about the adoption of GS1 standards and their benefits to the apparel industry
1. You were recently awarded the GS1 UK Apparel business champion award – what does this industry recognition award mean to you?
I’m really proud to have helped New Look implement GS1 standards so that we can support international growth. To be recognised internally at New Look has been exciting, and now to receive an industry award has made the experience all the more rewarding.
2. In a few words, what do GS1 barcodes offer to New Look?
GS1 barcodes have created a simpler way to identify products with our wholesale partners and helped build relationships. This hasn’t only saved on cost but also improved lead times for products to our wholesale partners.
3. What is your personal main goal – what do you aspire to achieve by adopting our standards?
I’d like to simplify the way we do things. If we can improve our processes, this will help us build relationships with other businesses at the same time – it’s a win-win.
4. Do you think the retail industry is ready to collaborate and engage in implementing a set of industry agreed standards?
With the retail world becoming more digital and accessible globally through so many different channels, we need to make sure we’re all speaking the same language. Potentially not all retail businesses are ready for it, but this is the way forward.
5. While implementing the use of GS1 standards did you encounter any challenges? If yes, how did you overcome them?
When you start to trade with other businesses, you need to understand the industry standards and work in ways to adopt these standards. For New Look, the core retail business didn’t need to change anything because the relationship is between New Look and the end customer and it works well. The wholesale side of New Look is trading as a supplier with other businesses, so our internal processes needed to be compatible with external companies. We needed to find a new way of uniquely identifying our products to anyone in the world, without clashing with other suppliers’ products. The biggest challenge was finding a way of doing this without changing any of New Look’s core systems, whilst still being able to trace the products for the foreseeable future.
6. Lastly, was it a surprise when you found out you won?!
Yes! It’s always nice to be recognised when you’ve been working hard to do well in your day-to-day job, especially when that recognition has come from an external company who works with many other retailers in the industry.
Read about how GS1 standards lay the foundation for multichannel growth