FEATURE: OMNICHANNEL RETAIL
FIXFAST BUILDS ENHANCED PIM CAPABILITIES WITH AKENEO
Building fastener and component specialist retailer and manufacturer, Fixfast, has improved data accuracy and consistency across its sales channels, partnering with Akeneo, the product experience company and global leader in Product Information Management (PIM) and Product Experience Management (PXM) solutions.
T
he partnership has also accelerated Fixfast’s product record capabilities, enabling it to fast-track and
quickly update new Brexit safety certification across its entire product catalogue ahead of key accreditation deadlines.
Market assessment Founded over 40 years ago, Fixfast designs, manufactures, and supplies specialist building fasteners and components for the walls and roofs of industrial, commercial and larger residential buildings. With its founding motto of delivering ‘maximum reliability, minimum fuss’, Fixfast’s offer that blends high quality, dependable products with sound technical advice and customer support services, has seen the UK brand grow to operate internationally, with its fastening construction products featured on some of the world’s most iconic buildings. Recognising it needed a single
source of truth for product data across its sales channels, and with the imminent launch of its new website, Fixfast wanted to unify its product data on to one platform to allow it greater speed-to-market, enhanced product information consistency –
which was key in communicating the safety standards of its construction products – across its channels, as well as enriching its product record. Having conducted a thorough assessment of the market, Fixfast chose to partner with Akeneo, based on its extensive expertise in the PIM space, as well as its capabilities to deliver improved product experiences.
Digital transformation
Fixfast’s digital transformation and website launch was met with a new challenge as Brexit regulation saw it needing to update its safety accreditation from the CEE European safety mark, to the UK equivalent, UKCA, across its entire product catalogue to meet the Government- imposed accreditation deadline of 31 December 2022. Working with its systems integration partner, Unified, and Akeneo, Fixfast accelerated the implementation of Akeneo’s PIM solution into the website, enabling
it to quickly and accurately updated over 600 product sheets and documents with the new UK safety certificate, ensuring it was compliant with the new safety standard ahead of the deadline in just 3months. Emma Watkins, Head of Marketing & Customer Service at Fixfast, comments: “Communicating the safety credentials and quality assurance standards of our products, consistently and accurately, is critical to ensuring our customers feel assured that everything we produce and sell has been rigorously tested to meet – and exceed – all the requirements to ensure its quality will do the job with maximum reliability. Of course, we have seen vast improvements across speed of updating our product catalogue, which sets us in good stead moving forwards, but being able to react quickly when new safety protocols or standards come into play means we’re now future-proofed against further changes.” James Barlow, Director UK&I at
SCREWFIX EXPANSION CONTINUES WITH PLANS TO CREATE MORE THAN 800 NEW JOBS
The omnichannel retailer, which is part of Kingfisher plc, plans to open up to 85 new Screwfix stores by the end of its financial year (January 2024), with up to 60 in the UK and Ireland and up to 25 in France. The announcement follows a record year of store openings in 2022, including its first five stores in France, with total number of store openings for the year reaching 87, across the UK, Republic of Ireland and France.
Committed to supporting the local communities in which its stores operate, Screwfix’s expansion plan will create new jobs, including retail assistants, assistant managers, and branch managers. As an approved training provider, colleagues in the UK and Republic of Ireland can participate in the
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retailer’s apprenticeship scheme and join the 850 apprentices currently training across the business. As part of the retailer’s commitment to reducing carbon emissions, the new stores will be equipped with air source heat pumps to provide heating and hot water. Screwfix’s entire store network is already
powered exclusively by renewable electricity and the retailer has been on a journey over the last 12 months to retrofit its existing stores with air source heat pumps. At the end of the 2022/23 financial year, more than 500 Screwfix stores were fitted with the low carbon technology, representing over 50% of the overall total, with more to be rolled-out in 2023.
John Mewett, Screwfix CEO, says: “We know how busy tradespeople are and how important it is to be able to find a Screwfix store close to their jobs. In response to sustained demand from tradespeople across the UK, Republic of Ireland and France, we are driving forward with our store opening program with the plan to open up to 85 stores this year.
“These expansion plans are making Screwfix even more accessible to tradespeople, ensuring they can get their job done quickly, affordably, and right first time. This is a very exciting time to be part of Screwfix as we continue to grow and deliver on our ambitions. I look forward to welcoming new colleagues to our stores over the course of this year.”
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Akeneo, comments: “Safety assurance and ensuring that certification is kept up-to-date is key for businesses such as Fixfast, who need to ensure that their products aren’t just manufactured to the highest standard, but meet and exceed the safety standards needed to support the construction and building trade. We’re thrilled to have been able to help them move quickly to meet new Brexit regulation and compliance as well as setting their teams, processes and systems up to build out product experiences across its sales channels, future-proofing it for success.”
About Akeneo
Akeneo brings a complete and composable SaaS-based solution for managing, orchestrating, activating, and optimising the entire product record in order to drive compelling and consistent product experiences across all owned and unowned channels and routes-to- market. With its open platform, leading PIM for product data and asset management, and ecosystem connectivity with Akeneo App Store,
Akeneo Product Cloud
empowers commerce businesses to deliver world-class product experiences that unlock growth. Please visit
www.akeneo.com for more details.
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