Littlewoods will strengthen its offices at Shanghai in China and Tirupur in India to boost direct sourcing and help cut costs.
The retailer, which employs 350 people in Thailand, Bangladesh, India and Hong Kong, has doubled the volume of products sourced abroad for its winter 2006 collection. It has reduced supplier numbers from 2,700 to 700 in the past 18 months.
Chief executive Mark Newton-Jones summoned 120 delegates from the retailer's top 90 suppliers to Liverpool last Friday to discuss how they can help modernise the catalogue giant. The call came as 1,200 jobs were cut to enable the Barclay brothers-owned retailer, which claims to be the nation's largest home shopping specialist, to tackle its warehouse overcapacity.
Newton-Jones urged suppliers to support Littlewoods' strategy to improve value and the quality of its product. He insisted he was happy with terms for its remaining suppliers, but expected more creative input. 'We asked our suppliers to bring us exclusive products to benefit our customers,' he said.
Littlewoods is the latest retailer to turn to its suppliers for help. Matalan was criticised last week for demanding discounts and Marks & Spencer also came under fire recently for imposing tougher terms on suppliers.
Newton-Jones added that more sourcing from eastern Europe has enabled Littlewoods to produce faster fashion by cutting lead times from 26 to eight weeks. It will send out 600-page mid-season catalogues from brands such as Marshall Ward and Kays, comprising 80 per cent new stock, as well as its regular 1,000-page books twice a year.
The retailer will also centralise its warehouse operations at Shaw in Oldham, the company's most modern facility, after it has received a£55 million overhaul. Remaining warehouses at Eccles, Wigan and Worcester will close next year.A better warehouse system means customers will benefit from next-day deliveries.
Asked whether there would be further job cuts, Newton-Jones said: 'I have made the necessary changes in the medium-term to our infrastructure. I can't tell you where we will be after that because we don't know what impact online will have on our business.'
Former George at Asda trading director Alison Thorne will join Littlewoods' mail order rival Otto as buying and merchandising director in June.
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