Country Road Group Enhances Focus on Store Planning Projec

Country Road Group has recently established a centralized hub using monday.com to enhance the management and coordination of store and department store concession planning projects across its five fashion brands: Country Road, Mimco, Trenery, Witchery, and Politix. This strategic move comes as a response to inefficiencies encountered when managing projects through spreadsheets and meetings, which often resulted in wasted time due to back-and-forth revisions between designers and planners and constant email sifting.

According to Swithin Oliver, the store planning manager, the previous system was cumbersome and lacked the streamlined communication necessary for efficient project execution. The new work management platform now enables the store planning function to coordinate the efforts of designers, project managers, and other stakeholders across more than 15 types of work, including new store openings and refurbishments.

Recently, the focus has shifted towards re-establishing concessions—branded spaces within department stores, particularly with Myer. Oliver noted that this influx of work in the concession space necessitated a more organized approach. For instance, Country Road’s various departments (home, kids, women’s, and men’s) require multiple projects when establishing a presence in a Myer store. Therefore, the ability to consolidate these projects under one overarching board on monday.com significantly simplifies the management process.

By creating a consolidated view of related works, Country Road Group has transformed its project management strategy. Instead of managing separate boards for each project, they can now facilitate up to nine related projects within a single board for each Myer store, leading to more coherent oversight and management. Oliver highlighted that this centralized approach allows for the visual representation of over 150 concession spaces while maintaining visibility through fewer than 50 project boards.

Additionally, the implementation of a “main pipeline board” serves as a comprehensive tracking system for store planning projects by brand, providing a high-level overview of project statuses and critical dates that need to be communicated back to the business. Automations tied to this board streamline timelines, allocate resources, and adjust plans based on real-time observations as projects progress.

While individual project statuses are currently updated manually, efforts are underway to automate this process. The data from day-to-day operations will feed into the main board, enhancing efficiency further. Oliver envisions interactive views that will allow stakeholders to track resource allocation and workload for each brand, ultimately leading to more informed decision-making.

Currently, project statuses are exported as spreadsheets shared with key internal stakeholders, but the goal is to enable direct access to data via a monday.com link, allowing stakeholders to view real-time updates without the need for external files. This initiative has effectively created a “central hub” for all projects, providing a single source of truth that enhances clarity and focus on task execution.

Oliver estimated that the implementation of monday.com has resulted in a 25 percent improvement in project management efficiency. The ability to review completed projects through this centralized system also offers valuable insights, enabling the team to reflect on successes and identify areas for improvement that were previously difficult to assess. Overall, Country Road Group’s strategic use of monday.com is a significant step towards enhancing operational efficiency and project management capabilities within its diverse retail portfolio.