Ambitions, Purpose and Strategy
Clear vision and focus which put our customers first
Our experience during the Covid-19 crisis taught us about our ability to innovate at pace and gave us the confidence to accelerate our strategic priorities, all of which focus on being Customer 1st. These will help us deliver our ambitions and to fulfil our purpose – helping everyone create a home they love.
Nick Wilkinson
CEO
Our ambitions
Ambitious about
profitable growth
Grow our business for the long term, at pace but always with an efficient use of resources to optimise profitability and value creation
Ambitious about
our brand
Be the #1 homewares destination, brilliant at service and experience, as well as product
Ambitious about being
a good company
Be a company that operates responsibly in all our communities, is leading on sustainability in homewares, and is a great place to work for everyone
Our Customer 1st strategy
Our Purpose, Proposition, Foundations and Shared values in more detail
Purpose and Proposition
Our Purpose
Our purpose – helping everyone create a home they love, unites our whole business internally, reminding us of why we do what we do, and sends a strong message to our customers, colleagues, suppliers and stakeholders.
Our Proposition
In 2020, we refreshed our proposition, which revolves around our customers, taking into account recent investment in our digital platform, the development of our delivery network, and the strengthening of customer engagement during the UK lockdown. We recognise that we operate in a tough retail space with competition from generalist retailers and online specialists. If we get our customer proposition right, the rest falls into place.
Foundations and Shared Values
Our Foundations
Our foundations (other people’s ‘key resources and relationships’) are areas that we have identified that underpin our value creation. We need to invest in these to maintain competitive advantage and gain market share. The Board and Executive Board reviewed these during the year to better reflect our new ambitions and the benefits of our digital platform launch, which is transforming the way we work.
Our Shared Values
Our shared values – Stronger Together, Long-Term Thinking, Keep Listening and Learning, and Act Like Owners – are an expression of our unique Dunelm culture and the reason why people want to shop with us, work for us, supply and invest in us. Our Board and Executive Board reviewed our shared values during the year, engaging with colleagues in our latest National Colleague Voice to see how well they resonated with the people to whom they matter most.
Our Foundations
Committed Colleagues
Our colleagues make Dunelm a special place to work and shop, and bring pride to the service we give to our customers every day. Their detailed product knowledge, provided mainly by our customer-facing colleagues in store is a key differentiator and highly valued by our customers.
Committed Suppliers
We have built deep and mutually rewarding relationships with our core suppliers over the last 40 years. Our suppliers are product specialists and allow us to provide our customers with products that offer choice, quality, value and style.
Efficient Store Estate
Our 173 stores allow us to showcase our product ranges, provide great service and inspire our customers as they browse. The store experience remains an important part of our total retail offer.
Agile and Scalable Technology
The technology upon which our new digital platform is built allows us to release continuous improvements to our customer experience and operating effectiveness. Our Digital teams have been set up to work in an agile way to maximise the opportunity available to them through new technology.
Flexible Supply Chain
The supply chain for our legacy stores fulfilment model is very efficient. As we grow our home delivery business, in line with customer preferences, we are focused on building a similarly efficient home delivery model, which includes both one and two-man delivery.
Data-driven Decision Making
The more we understand our customers, the better service, products and experience we can offer them. We are investing significantly in our data and insight capabilities, improving and accelerating our decision making to benefit our customers.