Marks & Spencer is putting the finishing touches to a major upgrade of the IT systems used in its food business.

The project spans IT systems for allocating space in stores, creating displays, forecasting stock needs and ordering from suppliers.

M&S said the project, which started in 2009 and will be completed by the spring, had already transformed its business.

“The food business has moved from predominantly manual-based systems to modern, best-in-class IT-driven systems,” said an M&S spokesman.

A major plank of the upgrade is a new space, range and display programme that allows the look and layout of stores to be designed from head office.

The system makes it possible to allocate the precise space required in a particular store for departments such as chilled or beer, wine and spirits, based on store-specific data including its size and sales figures.

Similar data is input into the ranging system to allocate products, so more ready meals go to city centre stores. for instance, and more ambient and fresh produce to out-of-town locations.

The other key strand of the project is a new forecasting, supplier ordering and replenishment tool called Quantum, which M&S said enabled better planning of stock and sales volumes, as well as better placement of stock within the store.

“The results are an enhanced customer experience, better availability, increased consistency across departments, easier-to-replenish stores and better cross-functional decision-making,” said the M&S spokesman.

On-shelf availability had improved by 1% in the first half of the financial year, claimed the retailer. A new system giving individual members of staff responsibility for specific parts of the food hall also contributed, it added.

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