Sportsman’s Warehouse Cuts SKUs, Vendors to Support Inventory Strategy

Dive Brief:

• Sportsman’s Warehouse has been rationalizing SKUs and refining product assortments as part of its inventory management strategy, according to a Q4 earnings call.
• In its fishing category, the retailer removed 40% of the SKUs and 30% of the vendors, CEO Paul Stone said during the April 3 earnings call.
• The retailer’s efforts aim to improve inventory productivity and churns, better depth of key and never-out items, local and regional product offerings, and overall in-stocks, Stone told analysts.

Dive Insight:

Inventory management remains a primary focus for the company as it looks to improve stock productivity, the CEO said. The goal is to have the “right goods [in] the right place for the right seasons with the right vendors,” Jeff White, CFO, told analysts.

Over the last few months, the retailer’s merchant team has been working on several product areas, including fishing, according to the earnings call.

“As we navigated through lower in Q4 inventory, we were very purposeful in how we prepared for our key spring season, particularly fishing,” Stone said. “For the first time ever, our fishing set was in place by mid-February with depth and critical items.”

Sportsman’s Warehouse removed about 20% of its total SKU and vendor assortment across the entire business last year, White noted. He added that this process enables the retailer to be more meaningful with key vendors.

“The team did a really good job of being able to get down in front from a clearance standpoint and get out of the old distressed goods even in fish,” the CEO said. “And then as we came back, we were able to go and you can see in the stores today with much, much greater depth.”

In a December earnings call, Stone said the company has seen “small wins” in subcategories where it’s focused on SKU optimization.