Lincolnshire Co-op
Planning for convenience
Successful convenience retailers achieve a delicate balance: providing excellent customer service during peak hours, avoiding costly overstaffing during slower periods, and maintaining consistent product availability. This is particularly challenging for multi-store chains, each operating within its own unique community. The key lies in having the right tools to understand and manage salary and hours budgets effectively.
Accurately determining hours per store – from serving customers and managing deliveries to preparing hot food – requires a flexible workload model that adapts to fluctuating trade levels. ReThink’s ReBudget model provides this flexibility.
ReThink’s workload budget model, ReBudget, combines specific features of each store, with times per task and expected trade volumes to calculate the precise hours and costs needed to deliver for every customer.
ReBudget helps:
- Fairly allocate budget: Distribute resources across stores based on their individual needs
- Adjust staffing: Adapt deployed hours in response to changing forecasts and processes
- Strategically plan: Conduct “what-if” scenario modelling to prepare for anticipated changes
ReBudget’s sophistication allows it to account for diverse store formats and offerings. It considers factors like in-store bakeries, self-checkout and assisted tills; variations in services such as opening hours, post offices, and petrol forecourts, and physical constraints including upstairs stockrooms requiring lift access. Built within Excel, the model is user-friendly and easily maintained by central teams after initial training.
ReThink is a trusted partner several regional convenience retailers, all using ReBudget to underpin decisions around how many people they need to achieve their operational targets.
Andy Warman – Head of Strategy and Transformation at Lincolnshire Co-op
“ReThink recently conducted a comprehensive productivity review of our operating model for Food and Pharmacy at Lincolnshire Co-op. The insights and recommendations provided by their team have been instrumental in driving significant improvements in our business. Tactically, the review enabled us to gain clarity on where and how we spend our time, allowing us to reallocate budget allocations across trading sites based on task requirements. Previously we set budgets based on historical data adjusting for inflation. This has resulted in a more efficient and effective use of resources, ensuring that our colleagues, members, and customers receive the best possible service.
On a strategic front, the review has been pivotal in shaping the scale, type, and sequence of investments in our transformation plan. The recommendations provided by Rethink have helped us to prioritise initiatives that will drive the greatest impact, ensuring that we continue to move forward with our colleague, member, and customer propositions.
What sets Rethink apart is their exceptional partnership approach. Their team coached us through the entire process, providing expert guidance and support every step of the way. They took the time to understand our unique challenges and opportunities, tailoring their approach to meet our specific needs. This was specifically welcomed given our Society had never undertaken this type of exercise previously.”
ReBudget Plus
ReBudget supports clients in hospitality, retail, pharmacy, and other sectors with bespoke workload models. Building upon the proven capabilities of the Excel-based model, ReBudget Plus will launch in Spring 2025. This enhanced version will offer improved security, automated data feeds to scheduling solutions, interactive dashboard reporting, and more.
For more information on how ReThink can help your business optimise workload modelling and salary budgeting, contact the team at [email protected] or on 01743 360129.