Dead stock

It is not a category you buy into. It builds quietly, one optimistic reorder at a time.

Spotting it early

Set a rule and let the report find it:

• No sales in 90 days, and stock on hand
• Sold fewer units this quarter than last, three quarters running
• More than a year of cover at the current rate

Ninety days is early enough to discount it while somebody still wants it. At eighteen months your only buyer is a clearance wholesaler.

Ignore what you paid

The money is already spent. Whether you paid £8 or £28 makes no difference to what the stock is worth today, and holding out for the landed cost is how one season’s mistake becomes three.

The question is what clears it fastest and what the shelf could earn instead.

Where it goes wrong

Dead stock keeps its safety stock buffer. A line that sells one a quarter still has a minimum of twelve set against it, so the system keeps recommending a reorder for something nobody wants.

The other fault is counting it as an asset in your head. Stock is only worth what it sells for, and a low inventory turnover is the number that says so before your accountant does.