Columbus Consulting Renews Relationship with American Eagle Outfitters
Company to help leading lifestyle retailer better define business processes in order to improve sales and inventory productivity, and reduce markdowns
Columbus, OH (PRWEB) May 24, 2005 -- Columbus Consulting, Inc., a leading
retail merchandise systems consulting firm, today announced that it has been
retained by American Eagle Outfitter (AE) to help the fashionable retailer
improve business processes relating to assortment planning, allocation and
replenishment. AE, with total annual sales of more than $1.8 billion, currently
operates 780 stores in 49 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and
70 stores in Canada.
“American Eagle has been one of the most successful
retailers for the past couple of years, and is definitely one of the leaders of
the industry,” said Rick Amari, president of Columbus Consulting, Inc. “Being
selected by a company with AE’s standing is strong endorsement of our
capabilities, and we look forward to working with the AE team to implement
processes that will help the company continue its long-term growth strategy and
vision of being a dominant, multi-brand lifestyle retailer.”
The first
phase of the AE project began in the first quarter of 2005. In addition to
helping identify areas for improvement in assortment planning, allocation and
replenishment, Columbus Consulting will also assist AE in the development of an
RFI (Request for Information) for a software vendor selection process. This
marks the second engagement with American Eagle for Columbus Consulting. In
2001, AE hired Columbus to identify and implement business process improvements
for its product development, sourcing and supply chain efforts.
“As a
result of our past successful experience with Columbus Consulting, we are
comfortable with bringing in Rick and his team to help us once again identify
areas of improvements in our business processes,” said Jim Ford, vice-president
of planning and allocation for American Eagle Outfitters. “In this very
competitive retail marketplace, it is important to stay on top of everything
relating to merchandising operations. Columbus offers us significant experience
in retail operations and technology that we intend to capitalize on in order to
streamline operations, improve merchandising processes and maintain our
growth.”
About American Eagle
American Eagle Outfitters (NASDAQ: AEOS)
is a leading lifestyle retailer that designs, markets, and sells its own brand
of casual, fashion-right clothing for 15 to 25 year-olds, providing high-quality
merchandise at affordable prices. AE's collection includes modern basics like
jeans, surplus, and graphic Ts as well as a stylish assortment of cool
accessories, outerwear, footwear and swimwear.
American Eagle Outfitters
currently operates 779 AE stores in 49 states, the District of Columbia and
Puerto Rico, and 70 AE stores in Canada. AE also operates via its Web business,
www.ae.com, which offers
additional sizes and styles of favorite AE merchandise.
About Columbus
Consulting, Inc.
Founded by industry veteran Richard Amari in 2001, Columbus
Consulting, Inc. is comprised of a team of highly experienced specialists in
retail systems and processes. The company works with many of the world’s largest
and well-known retailers, general merchandisers and apparel stores, including
American Eagle, Anne Taylor, Big Lots, CVS Pharmacy, and New York & Company
. Columbus Consulting is called upon to provide a variety of services, from
managing short-term, high-impact, executive-level advisory services on matters
of strategic importance relating to retail systems and processes, to overseeing
large, multi-disciplinary, multi-million dollar projects, lasting more than a
year. The company is based in Columbus, Ohio. For more information on Columbus
Consulting, visit www.columbusconsultinginc.com.
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/5/prweb243960.htm