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Building Customer Profits Builds SLSC Profitability
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If Sara Lee Sock Company
can increase the profitability of
its customers, the company will
receive a payback in terms of
profitable sales growth.
That’s the premise of
SLAMDUNK, a customer rela
tions program being imple
mented by SLSC. SLAMDUNK,
an acronym for Service, Logistics
and Administrative Management,
was organized in response to a
challenge from SLSC Chief Ex
ecutive Rich Noll to accelerate
the growth of sales.
A cross functional team in
cluding Sales, Marketing, Fi
nance, Information Services, En-
SLAMDUNK
gineering and Customer Service/
Distribution began working on
the program in March. The team
will continue to function until its
recommendations become part of
SLSC’s regular operating prac
tices and procedures.
“Our goal is to align SLSC
practices and procedures with the
practices and procedures of our
customers so that we become a
preferred supplier to those retail
ers,” says Chuck Allen, director
of Distribution and Customer
Service, one of the project lead
ers. “We also want to slash time
from the replenishment cycle and
eliminate waste in logistics and
administration.”
Telephonic surveys are being
conducted with a wide range of
customers — the larger custom
ers like Kmart, Wal-Mart and Tar
get and the smaller national and
regional chains — for each of our
product lines. Team members say
the reaction from customers has
been very positive, that they’re
very pleased that SLSC is taking
this initiative and they’re eager to
share their input.
Customers like Kmart have
scorecards that they use to rate the
quality and efficiency of their sup
pliers. “We like to think that we
do a good job in customer service,
but when we look at the way our
customers rank us against their
other suppliers it’s obvious that
we have a long way to go before
we become a preferred supplier.”
Kmart’s ranking of SLSC in
cludes factors such as error-free
cases, on-time deliveries and ful
fillment performance. The
scorecard makes it easy for SLSC
to know the areas in which work
is needed, team members say, and
those areas are receiving attention.
To improve the accuracy of ship
ments to Kmart, SLSC has in
(Continued on Page 11)
Amco News
VOLUME 52, NUMBER 3
SEPTEMBER 1996
Noll Looks Into the Future
A Challenge to Make History Repeat
Twenty-five years from
now when historians look
back on Sara Lee Sock
Company (SLSC) they will
see that actions taken in
the 1990s shaped the future
of the company.
“We are working from
a rich heritage, and we have
a clear vision for the fu
ture,” says Rich Noll, chief
executive officer. “Build
ing brands is our future. We
will be doing that for the
next 25 years.”
Noll sees a distinct par
allel between the future of
SLSC and the history over
the last 11 years of the
Hanes underwear brand.
SLSC’s goal is to repeat
that history.
“Today, Sara Lee Sock
Company stands on the
same threshold of growth
where Hanes stood with its
underwear brand 11 years
ago. Our market share, size
and competitive environ
ment are almost identical to
where Hanes underwear
was in 1985.
“Hanes emerged from a
pack of competitors in
which no one had more
than 10 percent of the un
derwear market. It was one
of the leaders at 8 to 9 per
cent market share, just as
we are today in the sock
market,” Noll says.
Noll
“Between 1985 and
1990 Hanes doubled the
sales of its underwear
brand, and from 1990 to
1995 Hanes doubled sales
again. The focus was on
growing the brand, and
most of the growth oc
curred internally rather
than through buying other
companies. Hanes now
has the largest share of
the market with around 35
percent, and Fruit of the
Loom is its only real com
petition in the mass market.
“At SLSC we have
doubled our sales of
branded socks over the last
five years. We can double
them again in the next five
years and again in the five
years that follow. That
would put us in a similar
market position in 10 years
to where Hanes’ underwear
brand is today.”
Noll says that Hanes
positioned itself for the
growth by focusing first on
becoming the most efficient
and therefore the lowest
cost producer of underwear.
“That allowed them to in
Torch Bearers
Three Sara Lee Sock Company employees Cindy Wells and Bob Hoots, share a
had the honor of participating in the Torch moment after the run at SLSC’s head-
Relay for the 1996 Olympic Summer quarters in High Point. See page six for
Games. The runners (from left). Rich Noll, their comments.
vest in building the brand,”
he says. “When you have
lower costs you have more
funds available for invest
ment, and when you invest
wisely you can keep bring
ing your costs down. The
two go hand in hand.”
The long-term strategy
for SLSC will remain the
same for the near future:
pursue lower costs and
build brands, Noll notes.
He points to the installa
tion of new finishing
equipment in Barnwell
which will reduce costs
by 15 cents per dozen and
to the testing of the
company’s first televi
sion advertising campaign
(see separate story, page
seven).”
Noll expects the com
petitive arena in the sock
market to change much as
it did in the underwear
market. As Hanes strength
ened its position as the low
cost producer the composi
tion of the competitive
market changed dramati
cally. Instead of a large
number of smaller com
petitors, two or three com
panies emerged as leaders
in the mass markets with
a small number of manu
facturers surviving in spe
cialty or niche markets.
(Continued on Page 8)