In this week’s AP Arms, we hear from Martin Ray, Accounts Payable Manager at Superdry, who has led the charge transforming the company’s AP function. Alongside Alisa McPhail, Head of Marketing at Xelix, Martin shares how he used a combination of people and technology to make the AP team the most efficient it's ever been.
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Meet Martin...
Martin moved from Accounts Receivable to take on the Accounts Payable Manager role at Superdry three years ago. His mission: to overhaul and modernise the AP department to support Superdry’s future growth.
Outside of work, Martin is a fan of pub sports, with fond memories of evenings spent in a snooker club near where he grew up.
Preparing for a technological transformation
Superdry, like many fashion retail brands, has faced considerable challenges over the past few years. The cost-of-living crisis, the aftermath of COVID-19 and shifting consumer trends have all tested the brand’s resilience. To remain relevant and continue its growth trajectory, Superdry decided to undertake a brand reset.
As part of this reset, the finance and back-office functions, particularly Accounts Payable, had to adapt. AP was often bogged down by manual processes, leading to overpayments and a general lack of visibility over spend. Martin’s role was to find the right technology to automate these processes and improve productivity.
Bringing on board new tech – AP Automation
Superdry’s AP team relied on a largely manual invoice processing system, which became a significant pain point as the business scaled. To address this, Martin spearheaded the introduction of an automation solution to handle invoice processing.
As the budget holder for the automation project, Martin was responsible for tracking ROI and ensuring that the technology would integrate seamlessly into the company’s workflow.
“The main goal was never to reduce headcount,” he explains. “Instead, we wanted to focus on business efficiency and managing spend. We needed to stop the problems we had around late payments, duplicate payments and the lack of visibility.”
Step one: Hire the right people
The first step in the transformation was to bring together a self-professed “fractious” AP department. Martin knew that a successful AP transformation required a team that was not only skilled but also open to change.
“The first step was to ensure we had the right people in the right roles,” says Martin. “We needed individuals who were not only technically proficient but also willing to embrace change.”
Martin’s recruitment strategy didn’t focus solely on candidates with a strict AP background. Instead, he prioritised individuals who had a growth mindset and were open to learning and adapting as the transformation unfolded.
Managing an evolving door of AP
Superdry’s culture places a strong emphasis on career progression. Martin used this to his advantage, offering his team opportunities for growth and development while they worked through the transformation.
“We have a lot of areas where people can progress,” he explains. “I was able to ask my team to give me their all and in return, help them further their careers.”
This did mean people might leave AP - but Martin was prepared.
He continues, "If we’re over resourced, that has challenges from an operational perspective, but equally we don’t want to be overstretched. Because we take succession planning seriously, we’re prepared for people to move on, which helps us maintain just the right number of team members.”
As people moved on to other roles within the business, they left behind a legacy of good work that supported the AP department’s ongoing success. In turn, Martin could backfill roles with fresh talent who were eager to contribute to the transformation.
Instead of an attrition rate leaving him high and dry, Martin created a system of hiring that found motivated talent, rewarded them for their efforts and perpetuated a good reputation for Accounts Payable with the rest of the business.
Technology is great – but not everything
Martin’s number one piece of advice for any business undertaking a similar transformation is that technology can’t fix all your problems.
He says, “Technology is there to support your team and the wider business, but it doesn’t automatically transform your processes. You still need to drive change yourself.”
By focusing on the people at the heart of the project as Martin’s done in Superdry’s AP Transformation, you’ll get the most out of new technology.
A huge thank you to Martin for sharing his insights on measuring the success of Finance Transformation.
If you’d like to feature alongside some of the industry’s finest at The AP Arms, please get in touch – we’d love to share a tipple with you down the pub!
