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Global brand background
Mr Cullen joined Clarks from UK airport operator BAA,
where he was chief operating officer. His background also
includes senior roles in manufacturing and distribution with
international organisations including Mars, Diageo, DHL and
The Gap.
At the time of his appointment, Melissa Potter, said: “Nick
brings to Clarks a proven track record of success in end-to-end
supply chain operations and planning. We hope that his
appointment demonstrates our firm’s commitment to
continuously improving the global service to Clarks’ consumers
and our business partners. Nick’s experience of working with
top-tier brands on a global scale positions him well to support
Clarks in the next stage of our own strategic development.”
In conversation with
World Footwear
soon after his
appointment Mr Cullen says Clarks already had in place “an
accomplished supply chain team that have built an effective
end-to-end supply chain over several years”. He sums up the
level of complexity in that supply chain by explaining that the
company designs its own shoes (and accessories) and
sources their production in several countries, mainly across
Asia and the Americas. This includes working with more than
50 tanneries from which Clarks chooses its leather and
several third-party footwear manufacturing partners.
Mixed model
“We operate a mixed model for logistics,” he adds,
“operating our own warehouses complemented by third-party
facilities where appropriate. It’s evident in my early weeks that
both our own supply chain teams and our vendor base have
worked effectively to improve our performance. We can now
step back and look at where the growth will come from in our
business and how to develop an even more effective end-to-
end supply chain that can contribute to this growth. At this
stage there are no preconceived solutions or ideas out of
scope. We are currently engaging our supply chain experts,
internal stakeholders and key vendors with what we could do
to take our performance to the next level. As we work through
that process it will become clear where the emerging
opportunities are in sourcing, logistics and planning and
where the priorities lie.”
For him, the key to the new role of global supply chain
director is to support the company’s framework as it transitions
from being international to becoming genuinely global, with an
understanding of what gets done globally, regionally and locally.
It includes bringing together sourcing, logistics and supply
planning, globally. “This will enable the supply chain to be
tailored for specific needs,” he continues, “for example differing
by customer and by consumer, product category and route to
market. We are now in a position to leverage our global scale
where it makes a difference on costs, agility to respond to
changing market needs and working more closely with our
vendor base on improving quality and service.”
Rewards for the best
The implication of this is that Clarks will do more business
in future with the best performing supply base; the best
tanneries, shoe factories, warehouse and transport providers,
shipping lines and forwarders can expect to become busier.
“As we go on this journey we will be engaging our partners
who have a big impact on our success,” Mr Cullen explains.
“The successful partners should expect to gain from this;
when they challenge us and contribute to our growth, there
will be growth for them as well. Our business is unique, so are
most others. The challenge is to work through what supply
chain best practice works for us, and what is most
appropriate. Once we have all the components of the plan
(input from stakeholders, a view on what best practice is
appropriate and where the priorities lie) we’ll then be able to
take another step on Clarks 186-year journey to success.”
A CHALLENGE TO ALL PARTNERS