Playtex supports its assets with Britannia
Added: (Fri Apr 25 2003)
Pressbox (Press Release) -
~Britannia enables famous bra manufacturer to consolidate its asset register following acquisition~
Sara Lee Intimates Ltd, (formerly known as Playtex Ltd), the world famous underwear manufacturer, has selected Britannia Software to enhance its Fixed Asset Management function following the acquisition of Gossard from the Courtauld Group.
Sara Lee is one of the largest and most profitable apparel businesses in the world. It manufactures underwear, knit products and legwear garments that are marketed through such powerful industry brand names as Playtex, Wonderbra and Gossard.
As a result of the acquisition, the company now has three sites with over 600 employees. This has had an impact on the way fixed assets are managed within the finance department, mainly because of the increase in asset numbers and the need to merge and consolidate the registers. Playtex had used Britannia Software’s solution for some time but had not updated it in line with the latest Windows™ technology as its requirement had previously been quite simple.
“The asset register has doubled in size since the acquisition”, explained Dougie Bratt, financial accounting manager at Sara Lee Intimates Ltd. “With two asset registers to merge, we decided that a user-friendly Windows™ interface would be beneficial, particularly as it could be developed in the future and would integrate with any new general ledger we acquired. Our Britannia system has worked very well for us over the last eight years, so it was a natural choice to update it. It is good to find a software supplier that provides a high quality support service and has the flexibility to meet our exact requirements.”
The finance team at Sara Lee Intimates is using Britannia’s system to manage production equipment, cutting facilities, sewing machines, warehouses and fixtures. “The software proved to be invaluable when creating the new register”, said Bratt. “By using the high-level of functionality to report on multiple fields, we have been easily able to identify duplicated assets. This has not only allowed us to carry out a number of disposals but has recorded the full history of each transaction which we can later report on.
“The software is also crucial to the budgeting process and enables us to identify the capital spend for each department and forecast depreciation for future period,” added Bratt. “This has been particularly useful since the acquisition as it is important to establish an accurate value of the new asset base. Being able to track assets is another advantage, particularly as we transfer sewing equipment to sub-contractors at other sites. At any time, we can search for an asset, using definable analysis fields and find the exact location and history of that item.”
Sara Lee Intimates Ltd will record each brand division as a separate cost centre on one central system. Each finance manager can then access the information that is relevant to their brand and can utilise the data for internal management. “The real benefit of Britannia’s system is not just the ability to meet statutory requirements, but the improvement it brings to the efficiency of the department and the accuracy of the asset register,” concluded Bratt.