UK luxury department store Fortnum & Mason is revamping its supply chain operations as part of an effort to ensure it can keep up with growing demand.

The company has partnered with Oracle Retail Brand Compliance Management to modernise how it develops and manages products while maintaining the standards that it says “define” its brand.

The Oracle partnership brings together supplier information, product specifications, approvals and development workflows in one place, said Fortnum & Mason head of technical for food and beverages, Laura McLindon. This will allow teams and suppliers to work from the same up to-date-information without relying on manual tracking.

McLindon added that this will mean spending less time on administration and manual processes, better collaboration with suppliers, and a streamlined path from product idea to launch, allowing Fortnum & Mason teams to spend more time delivering high quality and innovative products.

The partnership also provides greater visibility and governance across the product lifecycle, combining ingredient data, supplier records, compliance documentation, packaging information and sustainability data.

This helps teams make informed decisions, maintain end-to-end product traceability and respond quickly to supplier or regulatory changes, ensuring a seamless buying experience for customers, McLindon said.

The technical head also expects the platform to lay the foundations for future innovation, with the possibility of utilising Oracle’s “expanding AI capabilities”.

Earlier in the year, Fortnum & Mason installed a new clienteling platform to improve personalised user experiences across its stores, by providing staff with a real-time, centralised view of customer profiles.

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