SPEAKERS' HIGHLIGHTS
Together in St. Pete 200 store fixture manufacturers shared experiences and examined the impact of recent economic developments on the retail and store fixturing industries. Here you'll find highlights, plus links to many speakers' Powerpoint presentations.

• Navigating New Frontiers with Keynoter Gary E. Hoover
• Retailers Discuss "What's Up"
• Fixture Buying Trends & Forecasts
• Achieving Business Growth
• Lean Manufacturing
• NASFM's Annual Meeting

"If you are in a good position where you have cash in the bank, now is a good time to think about your business. When we are busy, most of us get so buried in putting out brush fires day to day that we don't step back and think about it. If there's one silver lining in current economic conditions it's that we don't have all these brush fires all of a sudden. It might be a chance to have that retreat, to go offsite and plan a new direction." Hoover's advice: "Don't try to become all things to all people. There's only room for a couple of companies that can provide one-stop shopping." He suggests that manufacturers try not to rely upon one or a handful of customers. "If we were to stand up here and go through all the major retailers, I would not want to have my life dependent on these companies. Now, I don't think they are going to go away because they've been around a long time, but man, they could end up closing a lot of stores—don't be dependent!"

When asked whether their expansion plans had changed since Sept. 11, both Best Buy and Kohl's said "no." The Paradies Shops, which operates specialty shops in airports, has scaled back expansion plans for some of the chains the company represents. Here's a bit of the discussion:

Panelists: Chuck Luckenbill, Vice President-Visual Merchandising, Kohl's
Jeff Mason, Director of Visual Merchandising, The Paradies Shops
Mark Randall, Director of Fixture Purchasing, Best Buy

Facilitator: Karen Schaffner, publisher of Display & Design Ideas

Q: How can a store fixture manufacturer better service you in an economic downturn?

Mason: I'm going to look for people in trust partnerships, relationships, quality.
Price isn't the first thing I ask for, and I think that we get stronger because of that.

Luckenbill: At Kohl's, we're maintaining an attitude that there isn't going to be any downturn in our development. We have a long-term strategic goal that we are going to meet, and in the spring of 2003 we are opening up quite a few stores in Southern California, which will qualify us in the retail world as a national company. Our real estate guys are five years ahead of us, so nothing is slowing down, so, a really clean answer is to say that we're taking a positive approach.

Randall: Most of our discussions with our vendors are for the next three to five years. We know that manufacturing in the U.S. is going to change significantly in the next three years. We know that Best Buy is going overseas for more things. This is really our first year doing that, and our goal is not to put our vendor base out on the street. Our goal is to work through our vendor base to utilize different pricing and different structures. But (our vendors) have also changed, and they are all becoming coordinators of various things. You're more than just a manufacturing plant. You're logistics, you're shipping, you're receiving.

All those things have to go together. And so as we discuss changes in the next few years, we're really looking at what the vendors' role is. That role is not going to be exactly the same at it was, and flexibility from our vendor base, the ability to roll with those punches, the ability to change even their work force emphasis—that's what's going to keep our vendors strong and viable.

It won't be business as usual no matter what happens in the rest of the U.S. or the economy or how we go along. We have to look out for the dollars, and yet we don't want to leave our vendor base out in the cold.

Chuck Luckenbill, Vice President—Visual Merchandising, Kohl’s
Luckenbill is responsible for visual merchandising, fixtures and in-store graphics for Kohl’s. His past experience includes three years as president and owner of his own firm, Luckenbill Design, LLC; nine years with Carson Pirie Scott; and 16 years at Dayton Hudson Department Stores. Luckenbill is a long-time member of Display & Design Ideas' Editorial Advisory Board and is a past member of the board of the National Association of Display Industries (NADI).

Mark Randall, Director of Fixture Purchasing, Best Buy
Randall has been a part of the Best Buy Co. Inc. for four years. He began his career with the company as a National Merchandising Manager in Retail Operations. In 1999, he became a part of the Fixture Department within Property Development, where he has stayed the past two years. Currently, in his role as Director of Fixture Purchasing, he supervises the purchase and implementation of all fixture-related changes in Best Buy, Musicland, and Magnolia Hi-Fi stores, approximately 1,800 stores in total.

Prior to joining Best Buy, Randall worked in the manufacturing sector for 20 years, managing areas of inventory control, product engineering, quality assurance, process engineering and purchasing. He has had extensive training in statistical process control, process improvement, financial management and vendor relations.

Fixture Buying Trends & Forecasts

"I think the holiday sales results are going to have the most impact on whether this 46 who said they have no change continue to take that stand, and we're hearing forecasts of anywhere from the optimistic National Retail Federation, which says we'll have a 2% to 3% increase over last year, to the most pessimistic Deloitte study that predicts a 1% drop. It is all crystal-ball gazing," Schaffner adds.

"A study completed for OSF was presented at the DDI Forum this past weekend. I'm just going to look here at what it had to say about the importance of store design.

They looked at store design as the driver of profit. Basically, more than half of the respondents said that store design's impact on profitability can be over 20% and 22% said it's actually even higher than that, over 60%.

Looking at store design, 95%—almost everyone—said that store design was the key to their retail strategy. And 75% said it was critical to their business success. The more successful the retailer, the more important store design is."

Powerpoint presentation:
Store Design & Fixture Buying Trends
Available to Members Only

Karen Schaffner, Publisher, Display & Design Ideas
Karen Schaffner, publisher of Display & Design Ideas, shared highlights of the results of the 12th Annual NASF/DDI Store Fixture Survey and recent phone interviews of the Top 100 Retailers responding to the post-Sept. 11 shake-up in the economy.

Jeff Balkan, Managing Director, American Express Tax and Business Services
Balkan has more than fifteen years of experience both as a consultant and in industry. As a consultant with Andersen Consulting for five years, he performed organization and strategic business unit reviews, completed valuation analyses, developed long-range strategic plans, identified work flow improvement and cost savings opportunities, and implemented change. In industry for Case Corporation for more than five years, Balkan coordinated the development of strategic and business plans, managed product planning, financial planning and analysis functions, and directed several process reengineering projects for the company.

Marcy Larson, Director of Consulting, American Express Tax and Business Services
Larson has more than twelve years of experience both as a consultant and in industry. She gained her industry experience through a variety of business management and new products positions with Fortune 100 companies. As a consultant with Market Impact, a company she founded, she built a diverse client base including food manufacturers, research suppliers and an alcoholic beverage distributor.

Paul Pinkus, Managing Director—Chicago Consulting Group, American Express Tax and Business Services
Paul Pinkus has been a managing director at American Express Tax and Business Services since 1998. He has over 26 years of experience as a consultant for companies both in and outside of the store fixture industry and was a partner in the accounting and consulting firm of Altschuler, Melovin, and Glasser LLP prior to his current position.

Lean Manufacturing

"If you haven't implemented lean," says Geno Plitt, "I strongly, strongly recommend that you do. I know it can help you. It can help any company eliminate waste. It can help you be more competitive, have happier customers and, the bottom line, better profits."

This session, introducing the system introduced in 1977 as the Toyota Production System, brought Plitt, president of Bay View Industries, a furniture manufacturer in Oak Creek, Wis., to help fixture manufacturers understand ways to increase communication, decrease the amount of time and materials wasted when problems occur, and motivate staff to take ownership and understand more than just their small piece of the manufacturing process.

Powerpoint presentation:
Lean Manufacturing
Available to Members Only

BACK TO TOP

Powerpoint presentation:
2001 Association Update
Available to Members Only

BACK TO TOP