Finger, Haynes Furniture, Ivan Smith, Jordan’s, Roomful Express, Steinhafels and Wickes Furniture Join Growing List of Retailers Achieving Supply Chain Optimization With RedPrairie’s Solutions
Waukesha, Wis. – RedPrairie is creating competitive advantage and long-term value for many retailers in the furniture industry. Today RedPrairie, a global leader in supply chain technology solutions that enable business process transformation, announced that seven additional furniture retailers – Finger Furniture, Haynes Furniture, Ivan Smith Furniture and Appliance, Jordan’s Furniture, Roomful Express Furniture, Steinhafels and Wickes Furniture are achieving supply chain optimization from RedPrairie solutions.
Steinhafels, the largest furniture retailer in Wisconsin, has more than tripled its revenues in the last ten years and needed a new distribution center to keep up with demand. Steinhafels implemented RedPrairie DLx® Warehouse in August of 2002 and then transferred the software to its new 420,000-square-foot distribution center in Waukesha, WI. The state-of- the art facility ships directly to customers and to their stores throughout Wisconsin.
Ellen Steinhafel-Lappe, Chief Financial Officer at Steinhafels Furniture says, “Our existing warehouse software provider was not able to offer the warehouse functionality we needed to improve our business. With the expected increase in inventory volume, a best-of-breed WMS was needed to take us to the next level. It is virtually impossible to pull the wrong product because DLx Warehouse has built-in processes that ensure accuracy every time a product is touched in the warehouse.”
Steinhafel-Lappe continues, “RedPrairie was the clear solution for the furniture industry. Their support staff, management and programmers have been fantastic and very responsive. I can’t say enough about their customer service. They’re genuinely interested in making sure their customers are satisfied.”
“Wickes Furniture Company completed an exhaustive search process for a new WMS as part of a much larger systems overhaul christened ‘Project Ignite.’ RedPrairie was the clear leader in the furniture space for distribution excellence. They are the only software provider whose customers advocated their use more strongly than the sales staff; and we now understand why. The RedPrairie functionality in general is comparable with Tier One providers, but they have really focused their development around the furniture industry needs. We have been very impressed with their staff, software and ability to respond to our needs,” said Chris York, Vice President, Process Improvement for Wickes Furniture Company, Inc.
York continued, “Wickes Furniture is implementing SAP Retail and RedPrairie DLx® Warehouse/Dispatcher in order to provide the infrastructure required for intense growth. Our goal is to have the best customer experience in the industry, and Dispatcher will allow us to deliver product the day after the customer is in the store with minimal effort and 100% accuracy.”
Furniture manufacturers, distributors and retailers face unique supply chain challenges including managing large volumes of sizeable inventory with minimal movements, high return rates due to the nature of the product, varying human resource requirements, and long lead times obtaining product from overseas manufacturers. RedPrairie addresses these needs through its best-of-breed functionality and expertise in the retail furniture industry, and is one of the leading technology providers to this specialized market.
“Haynes selected RedPrairie because we needed a more advanced warehouse management solution to operate our new 277,000-square-foot warehouse. Haynes is a family owned business and has been in the furniture business over 100 years,” said Wayne Hutnick, COO/CFO for Haynes Furniture.
Comments RedPrairie Company Leader John Jazwiec, “RedPrairie is pleased to welcome seven more companies to our growing list of retail furniture customers. We have captured market share for this industry due to the robust and flexible functionality inherent in our solutions. This is a market with incredible logistics challenges and RedPrairie continues to rise to meet their supply chain demands.”
About Steinhafels
Steinhafels is a 71-year-old family-owned furniture retailer located in Waukesha, WI. Steinhafels has the fastest growing, most innovative furniture stores in Wisconsin and employs more than 500 people.
About Wickes
Rooted in the heart of the Midwest, Wickes Furniture, one of the nation’s largest furniture retailers, opened its first showroom in Fridley, Minnesota in 1971, offering one of the largest selections of quality home furnishings, affordably priced.
Today Wickes Furniture has 32 showrooms nationwide, plus four distribution centers, located in Chicago, Minneapolis / St.Paul, Portland and Los Angeles. Wickes Furniture employs over 1,500 people. Wickes Furniture Company, Inc., a top 25 furniture retailer, is owned by investment firm, Sun Capital Partners.
About RedPrairie Corporation
For over 30 years RedPrairie has enabled leading global companies to create competitive advantage through supply chain excellence. RedPrairie’s comprehensive technology solutions provide rapid and sustainable return on investment by optimizing the performance of people, places and processes.
RedPrairie provides industry-tailored solutions for diverse markets, including consumer goods, direct to consumer and traditional retail, food and beverage, high tech / electronics, third party logistics, industrial / wholesale, automotive and service parts, and pharmaceuticals.
For additional information, call 1.877.733.7724, or access www.RedPrairie.com.
