Too much stock the real cost
Does your school have a school uniform shop? And if it does who runs your shop, the school, or an external supplier? How well do you control your uniform inventory?
You may be asking yourself why these questions. Well, it is very important to know how high or low your school uniform stock levels are. Especially if your school uniform shop is outsourced to an external supplier.
This is a very important question because stock levels play a vital role when negotiating with a new school uniform supplier for your school. High stock levels can be a barrier to finding new school uniform suppliers. Typically, in uniform tenders, a “stock buy-over” agreement is a common condition. This means the new supplier agrees to acquire the existing stock. This poses two key challenges.
Buying over poor quality uniforms
If you’re changing uniform suppliers due to poor quality, high stock levels are a problem. New suppliers might avoid buying low-quality stock, especially if they’re known for high-quality uniforms. So, if you have too much stock, it can deter new suppliers from working with the school. In such a scenario, you may not find a new supplier until the stock is sold, which could take up to a year.
Stock levels that are worth millions
At Schooladvisor, we’ve seen some school uniform shops with lots of extra inventory, worth over a million rand. When suppliers buy too much, it can hurt their money flow. Suppliers make deals with manufacturers, and selling too much old stuff can slow down new orders for up to a year, which might upset manufacturers. This can lead suppliers to not want to sell school uniforms. This means schools might have to keep using their current supplier until they sell off the extra stuff.
Solutions to overstocking school uniforms
There are solutions to ensure that you do not find your school in this situation. Running a facilitated tender will ensure that your new school uniform supplier is contractually bound in terms of stock control. This means that they cannot overstock school uniforms without facing financial penalties. At SchoolAdvisor, we want to ensure your school’s school uniform store is operating at maximum and benefiting the school without unnecessary costs.
Call SchoolAdvisor today and we will help you find out if you have too much uniform stock and possible solutions to rectify the overstocking of uniforms.
