Retail
Three-store rollout for a speciality retail group
The second shop is where most retail groups discover they had luck, not a system.
A single profitable store had the owners convinced they had a formula. They had a good location and an owner standing in it six days a week, which is not the same thing. Before committing capital to four new units, we made them prove the concept travelled, and built the operating system that would let it.
- Client
- Speciality retail group, family-owned
- Engagement
- 9-month rollout programme
- Market
- Punjab, Pakistan
- Delivered
- 2024–2025
The situation
What we walked into
- 01
One profitable store, with the owner personally present for most trading hours.
- 02
No documented operating routine: pricing, ordering, and rotas lived in the owner's head.
- 03
Four sites under consideration, chosen on rent rather than on footfall.
- 04
Stock ordering was instinct, and slow-moving categories were absorbing working capital.
The approach
What we actually did
- 01
Prove the concept travels
We rebuilt the flagship's economics into a site scorecard, the catchment, footfall, basket size, and rent ratio the concept needs to work, then scored all four proposed sites against it. One failed on footfall and was dropped before a lease was signed.
- 02
Document the operating system
Opening and closing routines, category margins, reorder points, rotas, and cash handling written down as a store manual a new manager can run from: the piece that was entirely in the owner's head.
- 03
Open in sequence, not at once
Store two opened alone and was reviewed weekly for eight weeks against the model. Only once it held did stores three and four proceed, using a fit-out spec and supplier panel standardised from the first build.
- 04
Build the management layer
Store managers hired and trained against the manual, with a weekly per-store P&L review replacing the owner's daily physical presence.
The result
What changed
- 3 of 4
- Sites opened, one rejected at feasibility
- 11 wks
- Average site to opening day
- -19%
- Working capital held in slow-moving stock
- 2 days
- Owner presence per week, down from six
- Three stores trading to a documented model instead of to the owner's instinct.
- A site scorecard that makes the next location decision a calculation, not an argument.
- Fit-out delivered to a standard spec, cutting cost and time on each subsequent build.
- The owner freed from daily floor presence: the actual reason they wanted to scale.
Client identities are withheld under confidentiality. These case studies are representative of the engagements we run and the results they produce; figures illustrate typical outcomes rather than a specific audited account. We're happy to discuss specifics, and arrange references, on a call.
Ready when you are
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