Kohl's 2004 Annual Report Download - page 10

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Our beauty department features three new exclusive brands of makeup and skin care products, American Beauty, Flirt!
and good skin, developed by The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. exclusively for Kohl’s.
Expect Great T hings: Partners
TO OUR BUSINESS PARTNERS: expect great things is a
pledge in partnership with our suppliers. We will work collectively
to create the best products in the market, and as a result,
profitably grow our businesses.
A significant contributor to Kohl’s success is the strong
relationships we have with our vendor partners. Our brand
assortment is continually evolving in response to new trends
and styles and the changing needs of our customers. Kohl’s
was built on the concept of offering national brands that our
customers know and trust. Our exclusive and private brands
further enhance our merchandise selection.
EXCLUSIVE BRANDS In addition to our great national
brand partners, in 2004 and early 2005 we differentiated
Kohl’s even further, introducing a number of exciting new
exclusive brands. The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., one of
the most famous names in beauty, developed three new
exclusive lines of cosmetics and skin care products just for
Kohl’s. Also new at Kohl’s are daisy fuentes, everGirl,
Candie’s and Oh Baby! by Motherhood. These widely
recognized, trend-setting fashions can only be found in
our stores and on Kohls.com, giving customers one more
great reason to shop at Kohl’s.
PROFITABLE GROWTH Sharing information with our
vendors is the foundation of strong partnerships and successfully
growing our businesses together. In 2004, we established a
vendor Intranet that gives our top 100 partners real-time
access to information including sales, inventories, deliveries
and other data. This information enables our vendor partners
to provide us with a continual flow of high-quality merchandise
and helps us to maintain desirable inventory levels.
The newest element in our ongoing commitment to have the
very best store-level inventory and assortment is our partnership
with SAS, the world leader in business analytics software.
Through SAS, we will have a single end-to-end system that
helps us to accurately predict, analyze, optimize and support
life-cycle merchandising. This will allow us to increase revenue
through better allocation of products, reduced markdowns and
flowing goods into our stores more often and closer to sales.
In 2005, we will continue to improve our supply chain to bring
the latest new merchandise into our stores throughout the year.
Kohl’s and our partners are committed to growing our
businesses together. From creating new on-trend merchandise
to having the right products in the right markets at the right
time, our goal is to offer the brands, quality and assortments
our customers expect and desire from Kohl’s.