Cracks appear in Doulton's china IT plans

NEWS Royal Doulton has lost up to £12m in two months in its attempts to prepare for the year 2000 changeover. The china and glassware company this year invested in a millennium-compliant warehousing system, but failed to implement it correctly. The software wreaked havoc by denying popular brands were in stock - resulting in between £10m and £12m in lost sales. In a profit warning issued yesterday to shareholders, chairman Hamish Grossart said the backlog would not be cleared before the end of the year. Company secretary, Simon Martin, told Silicon.com: "It wasn't the fault of the software. The implementation plan that our management team put in place wasn't adequately tested or reviewed. Surprise, surprise - when it went live, it didn't work." Royal Doulton is now millennium compliant. But Robin Guenier, chairman of Taskforce 2000, said it was a good demonstration of how the Y2K bug does not only strike at midnight. "There are quite a few cases of companies losing money because they don't beat the bug very well. This problem is only very marginally about the midnight before new year," he said. Anita Smith, associate at law firm Shaw Pittman, and author of 'The Millennium Bomb Disposal Kit', commented: "I'm sure it's happening much more frequently than we hear about, but I'm surprised at how candid Royal Doulton have been." Royal Doulton is currently going through a restructuring process and aims to outsource its delivery, warehousing and distribution management by the end of next year. Chairman Hamish Grossart made clear yesterday that the outsourcing contracts include customer service targets - plus strict penalties if these targets are not met.