Keeping accurate stock figures and ordering correct quantities of stock at the right price can be made easier – if you know how. This course is designed to help participants manage their stock and resulting costs more effectively.
Date: Thursday 16th October 2025
Time: 9.30am-12.30pm
Cost: HAI Member €135, Non-Member €185
Further Recommended Learning:
Merchandising
Maximising Profit and Managing Credit
Smarter Business with AI
“Course very informative”
Course Outline:
The management of stock is a core part of every retail business and can easily ‘make or break’ a business. People often quote ‘Cash is King’, because having cash is more important than ‘profit’. Where this is particularly pertinent, is with respect to the amount of stock any business carries. If you get it wrong, it can break the business and if you get it right, it helps to make the business more profitable. This half-day workshop is designed to share key skills to give participants the skills and strategies that will help to have better thinking behind their stock control systems.
Course Content
- Financial Considerations
- Effect of Stock Control on Cash-flow
- What happens to €1 spent in your business?
- Respect for stock
- How Much To Order
- Cost of Holding Stock
- Cost of Ordering
- Effect of Discounts
- Systems of Stock Control
- Basic systems through to fully Computerised Systems
- Scanning from the Back Door through to the Front Door (live-stock)
- Is live-stock relevant to my business?
- Forecasting Future Demands
- Demand Patterns
- Seasonal Effects
- Moving Averages
- Other Trends
- Information from ‘the trade’ and ‘trade sources’
- Stocktaking
- Need for Accuracy
- Reasons for Stocktaking
- Periodic vs Continuous
- Treatment of Discrepancies
- When to Order?
- Safety Stocks / Re-Order Level / Service Factor
- 80/20 Rule
- ABC System
- Other Stock Issues
- Shrinkage / No barcodes / Wrong-selling, etc.
- Obsolete, Redundant and Surplus Stocks
- Identification / Disposal / Seeking Credit
- Stock Control in Action
- Review of good and bad Stock Control practices
- Top Tips
- Tomorrow
- What will you do differently?
Who Should Attend
This workshop is tailored towards the owner/managers of hardware retail stores, builders’ merchants or agri-stores, and their suppliers, who are looking to improve and enhance their stock-control efforts.
Methodology
This is an online training session, trainer led, with plenty of discussion from participants.
About the Trainer
Originally from Bantry James spent over 23 years in the FMCG (fast moving consumer goods) sector, the majority in Superquinn (now part of the SuperValu group), James is now Ireland’s leading consultant within the retail sector. He was also appointed to the Board of Superquinn during his career there.
In his current role as business consultant and training facilitator, James provides strategic advice and business planning for some of Ireland’s best-known retailers. He has an extensive knowledge of the hardware, builders’ providers and DIY sectors.
He is a regular contributor on retail topics for The Sunday Times, RTE Radio One, Newstalk, etc. He holds an MBA in Retailing and Wholesaling from the University of Stirling in Scotland.
For more information please contact Aoife at aoife@hardwareassociation.ie or call 01 2980969.