Inventory · Halden & Rowe
Cover is healthy overall, with outdoor overhanging into autumn.
Availability holds above target across womenswear and menswear. Outdoor and garden are running four weeks over cover and are the single largest working-capital lever this quarter.
Outdoor overhang is the only material risk to the inventory position.
Metrics
Inventory at a glance
The readings a retailer would look at first.
Availability
96.4%
up 0.3 pts vs last week
Above target band across every category except loyalty exclusives.
Weeks of cover
12.4
up 0.6 vs last week
Category target is 10.5 weeks; outdoor is at 16.8.
Overstock
£3.9m
up £180k vs last week
Outdoor and garden account for 71% of the overstock position.
Stockouts
142 lines
down 18 vs last week
Concentrated in womenswear denim sizes 8 and 10.
Dead stock
£620k
flat vs last week
Ageing above 26 weeks; scheduled for October clearance.
Slow movers
412 lines
up 9 vs last week
Menswear tailoring showing early softness.
Fast movers
78 lines
up 6 vs last week
Loyalty exclusives leading; consider replen buys.
Inventory age
72 days
up 2 days vs last week
Within tolerance; outdoor is skewing the average.
Summary
Inventory summary
Ana's editorial reading of the discipline this week.
Inventory is in a healthy position for the trading week. Availability sits above target, stockouts are declining, and fast-moving lines are gaining ground week on week.
The one clear risk is outdoor and garden, where cover is now four weeks above the category target. Left untouched into August, this reduces the working capital available for the autumn buy window and increases the likelihood of margin-eroding clearance.
Visual evidence
How the inventory position is developing
Six charts, one commercial story.
Working capital
Inventory value is running ahead of plan
Portfolio inventory value, weekly, £m.
Source · Commercial Intelligence · Inventory facts
What this shows
The blue line is inventory on hand. The dashed line is the plan.
Why it matters
The gap has been widening for four weeks — this is where the cash pressure is coming from.
Ageing
Outdoor carries the ageing exposure
Inventory value by category and age band, £m.
Source · Inventory ageing snapshot
What this shows
How each category's inventory value splits across four age bands.
Why it matters
Outdoor is the only category with material stock past 90 days — this is where markdown reserve is likely to fall.
Cover shape
Most SKUs sit inside a healthy cover window
SKU count by weeks-cover band.
Source · Inventory Explorer
What this shows
How many SKUs sit in each cover band — understock, healthy, elevated, overstock.
Why it matters
The healthy band is still the largest, but overstock is now the second biggest band. That is the shape to reverse.
Concentration
Working capital sits disproportionately in Outdoor
Inventory value by category, £m.
Source · Inventory position
What this shows
Total inventory value carried by each category.
Why it matters
Outdoor holds more capital than Womenswear despite trading a smaller share of revenue.
Sell-through
Sell-through is improving but still below plan
Weekly sell-through rate, portfolio.
Source · Sales facts
What this shows
Portfolio sell-through against the weekly plan.
Why it matters
The trend is upward, but the gap is closing slowly — not fast enough to unwind Outdoor stock organically.
Supplier
Weber is the single largest supplier exposure
Inventory value by supplier, £m.
Source · Supplier ledger
What this shows
How much inventory value is committed to each key supplier.
Why it matters
Weber concentration matters when any Outdoor conversation reaches into range depth or promotional mechanics.
Category health
Category health at a glance
One row per category, five commercial readings.
Source · Inventory Intelligence read model
Evidence
Inventory Explorer
Move from Ana's reading to the exact category, product or SKU behind it. Recommendations remain on Prompts.
Search
Commercial impact
£480,000 of working capital is currently held in outdoor overhang.
Reducing cover to the category target releases cash before the autumn buy window opens on 5 August and protects full-price margin on the incoming range.
Executive actions
What to decide next
Ana's recommended next moves for this discipline.
Approve outdoor markdown wave
Move BBQ and garden furniture to a −25% first mark this week to release working capital before the autumn buy window.
Owner
Buying Director
Horizon
this week
Rebalance womenswear denim
Move sizes 8 and 10 into the eight lowest-availability locations to close the current stockout gap.
Owner
Merchandising Director
Horizon
this week
Commit replen on loyalty exclusives
Fast-moving loyalty lines are outperforming plan; place a mid-cycle replen buy to protect availability into August.
Owner
Buying Director
Horizon
next 14 days
Related
What lives behind Inventory
The canonical business objects surfaced through this discipline.