HEART OF ENGLAND CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY INVESTS AROUND £1 MILLION IN
NEW TECHNOLOGY

New Electronic Point of Sale system to be rolled out across all stores.

The Heart of England Co-operative Society is making a major investment of around £1 million to completely modernise its point of sales system in all its outlets.

The Society has awarded contracts for two separate‚ sophisticated Electronic Point of Sale systems‚ one for all its Food Division‚ the other for its Non-Food Division.

The system for the Co-operative food stores will introduce automatic stock replenishment for the first time – it can keep track of goods sold and then automatically order replacement supplies.

Offering a complete picture of stock held at any one time – dubbed “perpetual stock-taking” – it enables the Society’s Head Office to identify popular lines‚ trends‚ wastage and leakage.

The system for the Non-Food Division will link Head Office, Stores and Distribution, offering Managers a full picture of sales on an hourly basis, highlight stocks that are running low and produce a list of suggested orders‚ enabling the Society to ensure that popular lines are always in stock and to plan promotions more effectively.

Ali Kurji‚ Chief Executive of the Society‚ said: “By investing in these new state-of-the-art systems the Society will ensure that customers can always find their favourite products and will receive a better service.

“We are always looking for ways to improve our service to customers and keep the Heart of England Co-operative Society at the forefront of retailing.”

VME Retail has been awarded the contract to install the Intellistore system‚ which is already being used by Scottish Midland Co-operative Society (Scot Mid) and Clydebank Co-operative.

At first the new system will be piloted for three months at Head Office alongside the Society’s existing system that it will eventually replace.

A further trial will then be conducted in one store to test before the system is rolled out across all the food stores.

The Non-Food Division contract has been awarded to Clarita/RSG (Retail Systems Group) to provide a full end-to-end solution linking the stores‚ Head Office and Distribution using the Microsoft Dynamics suite of products.

The new system will be rolled out from June‚ starting in the Toy Department of the Nuneaton Department Store, and completing with the Distribution Centre in February 2011.