Antoni Marquès

Chief Operating Officer of Bella Aurora

"S&OP will support our international expansion"

An advertising campaign that led to huge sales growth, a pandemic, severe disruptions in the supply chain and an international expansion programme – These are some of the challenges that Bella Aurora has faced in the last decade.

With a legacy spanning over a century, Bella Aurora has experienced exponential growth in the past decade. Today, the beauty retailer is one of the leading brands in Spain for facial cosmetics and perfumes.

In 2015, a series of advertising campaigns sparked a significant increase in demand for its products. While this led to a considerable boost in the company’s revenue, it also caused a rise in stock levels, bringing with it the associated risks and challenges for the business.

Bella Aurora decided to carry out a 360-degree S&OP transformation to address its continued business expansion. As part of a strategic plan, the company redefined the roles within its marketing, purchasing, and sales departments and introduced a new hybrid position combining planner and demand planner responsibilities.

“During disruption, it’s important to educate our teams and remind them that, while improvements may not be immediately visible, the results will come in the long run.”

Antoni Marquès, Director of Operations at Bella Aurora.

This marked the beginning of Bella Aurora’s 360-degree S&OP transformation—a process that is still ongoing today—with support from Slimstock. Bella Aurora implemented Slimstock’s supply chain planning platform together with the S&OP layer to support this transformation. This strategy has been critical in doubling the company’s turnover in four years, while stock levels increased by only 24%.

S&OP to mitigate the crisis

2020, the year of COVID-19, posed a significant challenge for Bella Aurora. The company fully embraced the online market to maintain part of its operations. However, market challenges were compounded by significant supply chain issues, including longer lead times and delays caused by upstream delays.

To navigate these challenges, Bella Aurora enhanced its S&OP process. This involved restructuring internal operations, creating a demand planning department, and appointing a senior demand planner with dedicated responsibilities. Additionally, the business revised business rules in Slim4 and introduced Slimstock BI Studio to monitor the evolution of KPIs more effectively.

Bella Aurora is focused on advancing its S&OP Roadmap over the next four years. “S&OP will support the organisation’s international expansion as we progressively involve more teams in the process,” says Marquès.