CORPORATE PROFILE

Service Divisions

Group Finance and Administration

A centralised service division providing support to the other divisions in the group, it is made up of the following specialist departments:

Financial Accounting and Corporate Reporting is responsible for the group's financial, corporate communications and shareholder reporting requirements, as well as ensuring compliance with all accounting and statutory requirements, and liaising with the external auditors.
Management Accounting is responsible for controlling the financial accounting systems, as well as co-ordinating and consolidating the group’s financial planning, divisional financial reporting and all operational financial reporting at store, area, regional and divisional level.
General Finance and Administration is responsible for merchandise, expense and rental transaction processing and payment; supervision of daily store deposits; and store and head office inventory and claims administration.
Treasury is responsible for group foreign exchange and funding policies.
Taxation is responsible for all aspects of the group’s taxation compliance.
Secretarial and Administration is responsible for maintaining the group’s statutory records, retirement fund administration, store lease administration, trademark administration, exercising the group compliance function and providing legal assistance/advice to other areas within the group as required.
Risk Management is responsible for the management and control of the risk management process, appropriate insurance placement, insurance claim administration and comprehensive loss statistics compilation, controlling the group business continuity planning process, and facilitating inter-divisional store security meetings for loss prevention information and strategies.
Procurement of services is responsible for the group procurement process to ensure that best practice is followed in all areas of the purchasing process throughout the group.

Group Audit Services

The Group Audit Services (GAS) division’s primary responsibility is to support the group’s commitment to strong corporate governance and sound internal control. While management is responsible for the development, implementation and monitoring of effective control systems, the internal audit division assists management in fulfilling this commitment.

The head office and information system (IS) audit teams co-operate closely to provide internal audit services for head office operations, including financial areas, such as accounts payable and credit operations, and non-financial areas, including shopfitting, risk management and distribution centres. The team also conducts technical reviews covering Foschinidata areas such as database administration and networks.

The store audit team has developed a scoring system that enables management to evaluate the administrative health of stores both within and across trading divisions.

Foschinidata

The group’s in-house information and communication technology (ICT) division, Foschinidata’s goal is to achieve full alignment of the group’s ICT systems and operations with its strategic business objectives. It uses a combination of fully integrated third party solutions and software developed in-house to provide a modern and efficient base for all the group’s ICT needs.

Group Logistics

The group logistics division is responsible for managing stock received from suppliers and for distributing it to stores efficiently and on time. The entire group's stock distribution (including receiving, storage, picking, packing and despatch) is centrally managed through eight distribution centres (DCs) based near the head office in Cape Town.

The group supply chain initiative is a comprehensive and fully co-ordinated effort to redesign the cycle which underlies ordering, acquiring and distributing merchandise. Composed of four essential components – supplier relationship management, pipeline, lead time and replenishment – it stretches over a multi-year period and will be continously updated.

Human Resources

The group HR division sets and implements strategies for human interaction within the group, working in collaboration with the group’s trading and service divisions, as well as providing a common platform to group companies for the provision of best-practice HR. All HR policies and processes rest on a foundation supplied by a code of values which has become known as the Foschini Group Values.

Directed at employees and the HR practitioners working within the group’s trading and service divisions, HR manages the group’s payroll for its more than 15 000 employees; policies regarding benefits and the practices associated with all these policies; performance management; reward; talent development; organisational structure management; resourcing; employment equity and transformation; training and development; industrial relations and dispute resolution; corporate social investment (CSI); and organisational development (OD).

Group Services

The group services division adds value to the operations of other divisions by providing expert and streamlined facilities management services on a cost-effective basis, enabling them to achieve optimal efficiency in their operations and the optimal well-being of staff members in the workplace. This includes all office employees and warehouse distribution space requirements; building, plant and equipment maintenance; security, fire detection and access control systems; management of the occupational health and safety programme and procurement of all standardised office automation equipment, vehicles and capital equipment other than computers.

Group Property

The group property division is responsible for administering the group’s leases of space for all its stores (1 539 at 31 March 2009), and for administering three properties which the group has historically owned and from which it still trades. Its tasks include assessing space requirements and matching them with suitable properties, negotiating leases and extensions of leases with landlords, and maintaining relationships with landlords over the periods of leases that sometimes extend for as long as ten years.