With sales down 10 percent, ASUCLA takes multiple measures to minimize costs
By Sean Greene
Dec. 6, 2009 10:39 p.m.
While sales remain slow for Associated Students UCLA services, the board is looking at other ways to save money, said ASUCLA director Bob Williams.
ASUCLA will move employees to different departments in order to find the most cost-efficient fit, as part of a restructuring effort to minimize costs.
“We have a very dedicated professional staff,” he said. “We’ll all work as a team and cover each other’s backs and work in different areas. We’re all very flexible.”
In addition to not filling vacant jobs, which totals $309,000 in savings so far this year, ASUCLA has saved $130,000 by reducing energy consumption and is digitizing much of its paperwork.
“We’ve known we have to get more efficient,” he said. “Because sales are slow, we’ve had some employees leave … (and) we are keeping some positions open.”
Food service and ASUCLA store sales are down 10 percent, compared to last year’s results for the month of October, which is consistent with the national retail slump, said Rich Delia, ASUCLA’s chief financial officer.
Delia said October’s financial results are better than anticipated.
“I think overall we’re pretty pleased with the first quarter so far,” he said.
If ASUCLA has more months like October, the organization will be back in order, Williams said at the monthly board of directors meeting Friday.
Sales are leveling out in line with last year’s results, Delia said, although computer and athletic wear sales remain slow.
Williams said he is confident the savings from ASUCLA’s restructuring will help offset the costs of lost sales.
“Sales still need to go up,” he said. “But based on economic uncertainty, we are looking for other ways to save.”
Williams said they are “aggressively pursuing any sales we can get.”
“The board has definitely made it a priority to reach out to grad students that hasn’t been optimized in the past,” said Shelley Schwartz, a graduate student representative. “The graduate student community is a very difficult community to reach, because there are so many sub-communities.”
Schwartz said she likes the progress made in researching student needs.
“So far there have been good strategies and good effort,” she said. “I think this committee will really improve its effectiveness.”
ASUCLA recently reestablished two South Korean sub-licenses after the outlets went bankrupt last year. The partnerships will allow university merchandise to be sold in Korea with a 7 percent to 10 percent royalty going back to ASUCLA, said licensing director Cindy Holmes.
“We have a real focus on trying to grow (foreign marketing) this year and years to come,” Holmes said. “It’s a new frontier, if you will, for the international.”
UCLA has licenses throughout Western Europe and in China, Japan and Korea. Future ASUCLA projects will receive more scrutiny to see if they are worthwhile endeavors.
“Some years everything goes your way,” he said. “These past few years, things haven’t been going our way, but we’ll get through this.”
