Annual Report 2016

Strategy

The company's objectives, which are based on the themes of customer satisfaction, net profit, balance sheet structure and CSR, will be achieved through:

Retail marketing

The positioning of all Beter Bed Holding formats is continually being refined. All the formats provide top-quality products and advice for the lowest or best price. Based on these strengths, strong emphasis is placed on increasing customer satisfaction, like-for-like growth and substantial growth of the online revenue. The ultimate aim is to increase the market share in an omnichannel retail environment. The various formats face different challenges with respect to achieving this aim.

The Benelux must primarily improve the transaction strength (higher conversion and higher order values). In contrast, the principle challenge for the other countries is to increase attractiveness (attract more visitors). Each format has developed its own strategy and plan for achieving this aim.

Innovation will be a key driver for growth in revenue. This pertains to both product and brand innovation within each format’s private brand strategy. In order to achieve this, the development strength within Purchasing will be enhanced and the cooperation with strategic suppliers will be intensified.

With a view to bringing about a further increase in customer satisfaction, substantial investments in training and educating our sales and logistics employees will be made.

The marketing department will make a large contribution to the development of the various formats through consistent communications in the stores and brochures and on the websites. Marketing spending will be increased in the years ahead in order to support the positioning and innovative character of the different formats.

E-Commerce

The e-commerce or omnichannel proposition will be further refined in all countries. The customer journey will be fully facilitated, which means customers will receive optimum service during all moments of contact. Online-only ranges will also be developed and the range of bed textiles will be expanded. Marketing spending for e-commerce support will be increased substantially. The objective of all of the above is to gain a fair share in online revenue.

In order to give shape to the omnichannel strategy, the management teams in the Netherlands and Germany have been strengthened and responsibility for E-commerce has been placed at the Management Board level. In addition, the E-commerce departments will be expanded further to include the required functional specialists needed to build and operate state-of-the-art webshops (including partnerships in the Benelux with parties including Wehkamp.nl, Bol.com and Fonq.nl, and in the German-speaking countries with potential parties such as Amazon.de).

Expansion

In addition to the like-for-like growth, expansion will contribute to revenue performance. Within the Benelux, this will primarily take place in Belgium. With respect to Matratzen Concord, stores are expected to be opened in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

Expansion in the number of stores is also foreseen in Spain, France and (at a later stage) Sweden. This expansion will take place under strict conditions concerning the investment per store, the operating expenses and flexible rental periods.

Alongside the expansion within the existing formats, the company will expressly look for opportunities for further organic growth or acquisitions in existing and new countries.

Purchasing and sales

Purchasing has been allocated a key role in implementing the strategy. In addition to the product innovation stated above, Purchasing has the following objectives:

  • improving margins;
  • developing the online range;
  • optimising delivery times;
  • having fewer (but more strategic) suppliers with fewer SKUs;
  • developing additional ranges;
  • creating maximum synergy among the various formats in the different countries;

Sales will ensure an optimum omnichannel customer experience supported by advice tools, configurators, Net Promoter Scores and customer reviews.

Back office (HR, Finance, Logistics and IT)

The Back office functions are expected to work in a sales-, service- and customer-focussed manner. Customer satisfaction, further professionalisation and proactiveness are the key terms in this regard.

HR has a leading role to play in this respect. It must focus on a range of matters including inflow, throughflow and outflow, management development, attracting young talent (especially for Sales), permanent training and creating a customer-centred, high-performance KPI and team culture. The HR function is fulfilled at the Management Board level in order to achieve this.

The Finance function will develop into a Business Support function, whereby the analysis capacity will be expanded by means including implementing a modern business information warehouse and applying function-specific dashboards.

Logistics must focus on acceleration within the chain. Customer wishes such as same-day delivery and next-day delivery will become leading and drop shipments will be facilitated when desired. The optimal logistics infrastructure will be determined on a per-country basis given the nature of the formats.

New front ends have been or will be developed within the IT function based on a robust backbone (SAP) that offer maximum flexibility with respect to customer wishes. The front ends involve both the cash register systems in the stores and the e-commerce platforms. Explicit attention is also paid to information security in general and cyber security in particular.

Corporate Social Responsibility

Beter Bed Holding's awareness of its corporate social responsibility is borne out in its existing compliance reports, ongoing stakeholder dialogue and structured approach to CSR that is embedded in the organisation. It is Beter Bed Holding's ambition to further develop initiatives in the field of promoting the circular economy from within the sector and in dialogue with strategic suppliers.

Value drivers

The above strategic approach leads to value creation in six areas that can be grouped as follows: