Success Stories : Speciality Retail - Poundland

Poundland rollout nationwide

The ultimate expression of value for money has to be a store where everything, including branded items, costs just £1. Founded in 1990, Poundland practically invented the concept of single-price retailing and has since become a multi-million pound business with 131 stores and a gross turnover of £300 million*.Following a management buy-out in 2002, the company has accelerated its growth rate and plans to extend its portfolio of stores to 147 by the end of 2005.

Unlike some other brands which emphasise price points and value, Poundland offers customers an experience which is far from being cheap and cheerful. Careful thought has been given to providing the right in-store environment; an exciting, constantly changing product range; and the highest standards of service. Since November 2003, for example, Poundland's entire estate of stores has been using an advanced EPoS solution running on Epson’s Intelligent Registers utilising the Metrologic Orbit and a Cash Bases cash drawer.

The impetus for the total rollout (previously, EPoS was implemented as new stores were opened) was the MBO which, observes IT Director, George Oldridge, changed the culture within Poundland to one where "information is king".

Poundland doesn't actually need to scan items for price ­ as a single price retailer, this is a simple calculation. Instead, the company sees the value of EPoS in the opportunity it provides to gather information with which it can further improve stock management and planning, important given Poundland's fast stock turnover.

"We are using the sales information to gain a better understanding of what our customers are buying, which will enable us to serve the customer better by increasing the relevance of our offer and providing a more exiting shopping experience" noted George Oldridge.

During the transition from old cash registers to the new EPoS systems, Poundland wanted to keep down time to a minimum so they chose Box Technologies to supply and install all 700 of the EPoS solutions into their stores nationwide.

Neil Duckhouse, IT Manager explains “We had a short time to implement the new systems but did so 2 weeks earlier than expected with the help of Box Technologies.”

The new EPoS systems provide Poundland with a fast and efficient way of processing transactions and minimising customer waiting time. Indeed, a primary reason for selecting this system from Box was the intuitive touchscreen which is simple for operators to use, even those who are not computer literate.

In addition to ease of use, there were several other factors behind the decision, as George Oldridge explained: "The terminal's design looks good in our new store format and its integrated thermal printer and Magnetic Stripe Reader means that we had fewer peripherals to connect. We also wanted to take advantage of the IR's open architecture because we had developed our own software and most importantly, we had confidence in the dependability of the Epson brand.”

*Projected turnover for 2005.