1. Memo
To: Mr. Mull
From: Natalie Bohay
Date: November 24th, 2014
Subject: 6-month plan for Ralph Lauren sweater department
The planned sales totals for the six-month period of August to January 2015, is
$1,754,000 compared to last year’s $1,725,000. Last year, the season sales totals went down
about 2% from August to January. The planned sales percentage is expected to go down less than
1% from August to January. The total planned sales increases significantly in the November and
December periods, because this is when holiday shopping will be taking place. August is higher
than July because August is when customers will be shopping for back to school and fall
clothing. The percentages are planned to increase during the holiday months and the month of
August as well. Throughout the rest of the months, the numbers are pretty steady except for a
small jump during the resort season.
The planned purchases at retail last year were $2,038,650 compared to the planned,
$2,018,500. There was a slight decrease in this area, as well as in the planned purchases at cost,
which were $958,166, last year, and $918,417 planned. The markdowns last year were 24.2%
and are planned to decrease by 0.1%. The planned initial markup will be 54.5% in order to reach
the gross margin goal of 45.5%.
In addition, the average stock went from $961,600 last year, to $1,741,769 planned
which, is a significant increase resulting in a lot of extra stock in the store. This will decrease the
season turnover from 1.8 last year to 1.0 planned. We could increase the turnover by having
more sales during the back to school season as well as the holiday and resort seasons.