Nestlé savours retail data boost

Mnaufacturing giant upgrades internal retail data management

Global food and drinks manufacturer Nestlé is using management software to improve processes at its internal retail outlet.

The company needed to replace ageing bespoke till and management systems that were costly to maintain and which made it difficult to track the shop’s performance.

‘We were getting to a point where the system would go down at least once a week,’ said Karen Cooper, Nestlé UK contracts manager.

‘There was a worry that we weren’t retrieving all the sales data we needed as well as losing debit card payment information.’

Based at the Nestlé Rowntree factory in York, the shop sells products that are ruled unsuited for general distribution, and is open to some 30,000 Nestlé UK employees, their partners and retired staff.

‘Offering between 700 and 900 waste product lines in the shop means the company doesn’t pay out to send them to a landfill,’ said Cooper.

‘They may only have the wrong sell-by date printed on the label, for example, but otherwise there is nothing wrong with them.

‘We have wanted additional information on what lines sell well and how many customers are using the shop, for instance.’

The retail management software, supplied by Davidson-Richards, integrates with Nestlé employee identification cards for tracking and administering sales, as well as providing more detailed sales data capabilities.

Installed alongside a new chip-and-PIN till system at the end of last year, the software also allows for processing longer employee ID card numbers, and provides a real-time view of sales and stock.

‘The system no longer updates overnight, but in real time, so we don’t have to wait to put stock on display,’ said Cooper. ‘And the reporting functions are much more flexible.’