Superdrug

Summary

Health and beauty retailer Superdrug is transforming its culture through a business transformation programme called Living the Mission. Key to this has been the education and training of all employees in total quality management (TQM) tools and techniques and using a cultural survey to track progress against cultural objectives.

Introduction

Headquartered in London, United Kingdom, Superdrug Stores, is a retailer of a wide variety of health and beauty products. It employs 12,000 people and has more than 700 stores throughout the UK.

The company is owned by Kingfisher plc, one of Europe's premier non-food retailers. Other Kingfisher-owned businesses include leading high street and out-of-town store brand names such as Woolworth's, B&Q and Comet.

The Case for Change

Superdrug's culture change programme can be traced back to late 1995, when the then managing director decided to instigate a business transformation programme based on the principles of total quality management (TQM). Peter Raine, Superdrug's head of total quality, recalls:

"Within a previous company our managing director had experienced the positive effects of a successful customer-driven total quality management programme. Such an approach was totally congruous with how Superdrug wanted to progress with established initiatives."

If you are a subscriber, click here to read the full case study.

Click here to find out how to subscribe.