13 September 2010 | Angeline Albert
The procurement team at Blackpool Pleasure Beach has been helping sales staff
boost company profits.
Katie Wilson, head of group purchasing, worked with three
suppliers to devise a 15-minute up-selling training programme for customer-facing staff in retail outlets at the Pleasure Beach. Among the
successes was an 18 per cent increase in the number of Britvic drinks sold at
the attraction. Wilson, who joined the company in December 2007, said: “Our
business is incredibly diverse. We get involved in sales and marketing
campaigns too.”
The buying team also managed to beat its savings target by
adopting innovations. Wilson’s team also made savings by improving the
amusement park’s visitor wristbands. The quality of bands were not bearing up
to the rigours of wet fairground rides, so the team tendered and organised
trials using products from different suppliers.
The decision was made to switch from two vendors to one and more than
half the cost of wristbands (53 per cent) was saved.
The four-strong purchasing team has an annual spend of £4
million and beat its two-year savings target of £290,000 by delivering £324,000.
Wilson told SM: “Compared to big businesses the savings may
appear modest, but the percentage savings often exceed those of larger
organisations and the variety of projects means the daily challenges are
tremendous."
Following success
with catering and engineering, the department’s role has grown to include the
Pleasure Beach’s Big Blue Hotel, retail, sales and operations departments and
the entertainment division, Stageworks Worldwide Productions.”
