Londis are a household name in convenience retailing. Their stores are stockists of a wide range of goods from cigarettes to frozen foods. It is a very competitive market and the need for fast stock turnaround and accurate stock profiling is paramount.

Having assessed a variety of EPOS systems Londis piloted Retail Manager Plus in two of its busier stores. Utilising industry-standard hardware from Siemens Nixdorf and supported by Retail Solutions (BitS exclusive Irish distributor), Retail Manager Plus is now being installed in all Londis stores in Ireland (120 in total).

Modular point of sale terminals utilising BitS Retail Manager Plus with weighing scales and bench laser scanners attached are the standard in-store configuration. All terminals are linked via a standard network hub to the BitS back office solution. Multi-save and mix and match promotions are handled automatically at point of sale and shelf- edge labels are produced before price changes are sent on-line to the tills when the label has been confirmed as being on the shelf.

Londis head office price bulletins and product file updates are downloaded each night and are automatically reflected on the in-store system. This reduces file maintenance duties by the individual branch manager. Decision- making information on sales such as the slowest and fastest moving lines is readily available and allows local competitive pricing measures to be implemented.

Cashiers can use any tills during a session and float-totals per cashier are consolidated when the cashier closes a session. This greatly improves the speed of cash reconciliation and banking.

Stores sales are transmitted to head office via the Internet for head office analysis of overall spend patterns. By utilising an EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) link, individual shop purchase orders are sent via modems to the Londis distribution centre for the next day delivery. This reduces the need for re-keying orders and reduces the supply cycle time.

In 2003, Londis went live in all stores across Ireland with RM Remote. Londis decided to re-badge the product Smart Activity Manager (SAM).

Nancy Holland, a Londis store owner from Mervue, Galway, says staff and management alike were quick to identify the advantages it offered.

”In terms of functionality, SAM is the most concrete example yet of the IT revolution paying a real dividend to retailers. The advantages for both smaller and larger store sizes are obvious. Training was not a big issue in getting SAM operational and it quickly established its ability to save time and increase accuracy.”

Retail Solutions have been BitS' exclusive Irish distributor for many years. We asked Seamus Quinn, the Technical Director at Retail Solutions to comment on BitS:

”We had tried to establish close links with a number of retail software providers in the past. This has not always been successful. However, BitS are able to respond to our customers' needs without delay. This in turn helps us provide the very best software, service and support. We have no hesitations in recommending BitS to any dealer who is providing solutions to the retail sector.”

BitS would like to wish Retail Solutions and Londis continued success in the future.