STL System Update

Hi Everyone

Since Christmas we have continued to work hard in trying to achieve our same day despatch level of service. Since Tuesday last week we have been able to consistently achieve same day despatch (apart from a small number of Synergi and web orders, due to a failure in the SAP interface on Friday Afternoon). I am confident our team can continue to achieve this going forward and our management team will continue to monitor the situation very closely over the next couple of weeks to ensure consistency continues.

I am aware of a number of issues we have been experiencing with backorders and how they are being despatched. We have now addressed a number of the issues, but in some cases this will only take effect on new backorders and not existing ones. Over time we expect the incidence to reduce and are of course focussed on minimising the problem as it reduces our efficiency.

Our team has been working through a large number of promotional returns. Most of the Bibles and Music promotion have now been completed and work has begun on the Christmas promotion.

With regards to invoicing and credit notes the only issue we now seem to be experiencing with a number of orders is the invoice not being printed and despatched with the order. The value of the invoice should all be correct and it requires us via our customer service team to arrange for a duplicate copy to be sent. If a customer does have a query with an invoice relating to a pre-Christmas order, please contact our customer services team who will be able to resolve the issue for you.

I know that we still have a number of outstanding issues to do with availability and improving our fill rate. This is now our highest priority and we are moving resources into this area to improve the situation as quickly as possible.