For a long time, bargain-hungry shoppers had to wait for the January and mid-season sales before they could flock to the high street for money-saving opportunities. Today, however, the sales are not the biannual events they once were: instead, value for money has become a constant watchword for the modern consumer.

Of course, 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 a portfolio of 104 stores and a gross turnover of £226 million. Following a management buy-out in 2002, the company has accelerated its growth rate and plans to have over 130 stores by the end of 2004.

Poundland's purpose built Retail Support Centre in the Midlands houses a state of the art 240,000 sq ft distribution centre which equips the business to support the planned future growth.

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 ­ developed in-house ­ running on Epson's touchscreen Intelligent Registers (IRs). The impetus for the total rollout of 700 IRs (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.



IT Manager, Neil Duckhouse added "The objective is to develop our EPoS, Merchandise Management and Warehouse Management systems in order to optimise our product offer and maximise sales. In short, we want to stock the items that will sell; not have to sell the items we have in stock."
For example, the system enables Poundland to monitor the success of its 'rolling product range', around 1800 items. Sales of these SKUs are recorded and data transmitted to the back office via a LAN where store managers can carry out realtime sales analysis. The information is sent daily to Poundland's Retail Support Centre via a Wide Area Network connection and published on the company intranet.

At the point of sale, the IRs provide Poundland with a fast and efficient way of processing transactions and minimising customer waiting time. Indeed, a primary reason for selecting the Epson terminals was their intuitive touchscreen interface which is simple for operators to use, even those who are not computer literate. Should an item not be barcoded, it's easy for operators to navigate the company's electronic catalogue via clear on-screen menus so transactions can be processed quickly and accurately. The system even prompts users to check whether the customer meets age restrictions or remind them that they need batteries to operate a particular product. The greatest test for the system comes during the last three months of the year when Poundland takes on a large number of temporary checkout staff (turnover usually doubles during the five week Christmas period). Most of these are comfortable with the system in under an hour.

In addition to ease of use, there were several other factors behind the decision to install IRs, 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. I'm pleased to say that in terms of performance and reliability, the IRs have lived up to our expectations."

For further information contact David Ormerod, Epson Tel: 01442 227318 Email: dormerod@epson.co.uk.