Toshiba And Triple Software – The Nutri Centre’s Natural Choice

London, UK, 6th April 2006September 2005 saw The Nutri Centre, the UK’s leading supplier of natural health products, continue to grow with the opening of the company’s third concession store within the new Tesco Extra hypermarket in Slough.Company backgroundThe Nutri Centre began in London’s Park Crescent as a natural health dispensary for practitioners with consulting rooms in the Hale Clinic and the nearby Harley Street – and grew into a major mail order operation serving complementary health professionals and individual customers nationwide.In 2001 the company began a collaboration with Tesco, the UK’s number one retailer. Tesco had identified that their customers wanted an increased range of alternative medicine products, together with more information on natural products promoting healthier lifestyles.

The Nutri Centre’s extensive product range and reputation for excellence provided Tesco with the ideal solution.The Nutri Centre stocks most nationally known brands, plus many breakthrough formulations sourced from leading edge overseas manufacturers, setting exacting standards for product efficacy and customer service.The challengeWith this philosophy in mind, when the decision to launch it’s shop-in-shop concept within Tesco’s flagship Kensington store was taken in 2002, The Nutri Centre looked for a PoS supplier with a shared commitment to providing reliability, combined with high standards of customer service, and the ability to manage multiple suppliers and products. As a highly focused customer company, The Nutri Centre needed to be certain it could provide excellent levels of in store service.The solutionRenowned for its specialist expertise in the natural products industry, and unique understanding of the industry requirements, Triple Software was the natural choice of POS solution provider for the Nutri Centre. Triple Software recommended their Shopmaster Micropos software on Toshiba ST-6500 modular PoS terminals. Prior to the opening of the first Nutri Centre shop within Tesco’s Kensington store, two alternative hardware suppliers were considered.Although a cheaper competitor hardware model was evaluated, following a successful trial, Nutri Centre selected the Toshiba hardware. Triple Software recommended Toshiba’s ST-6500 modular PoS terminals due to the proven quality and long term reliability, its robust and versatile design integrates power and connectivity into a very small footprint optimising essential selling space.2004 saw the successful opening of the next Nutri Centre concession within the Tesco Extra at Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. With over 45,000 different products now available from the original Regents Street dispensary and three Nutri Centre branches, the flexibility of the Triple Software Shopmaster Micropos solution was ideally suited to cater for The Nutri Centre’s specific requirements.

Business benefitsWith the Triple Software / Toshiba solution in place, each store can automatically manage its product file database independently and place orders directly from The Nutri Centre’s numerous suppliers, through a centralised database, with specialist lines being ordered through the Regents Park dispensary. All the databases are automatically updated overnight using a VPN line avoiding manual errors and ensuring 100% accuracy.Automatic stock re-ordering ensures efficient stock control, reducing stock wastage and saving staff time, leaving staff free to focus on improving customer service, resulting in substantial cost savings for the Nutri Centre.Comprehensive reporting is available giving visibility of sales, profit on each category and discounts on each line, allowing detailed analysis of individual product performance and enabling the company to pinpoint trading peaks and troughs. The use of the PoS system as a business analysis tool allows the Nutri Centre to quickly and easily make invaluable merchandising decisions within each store, such as adjusting stock or pricing, assisting with in-store product positioning and adjusting store opening hours.Unique requirementsOne of the key requirements for the Nutri Centre’s presence within the Tescos concessions was the facility for customers to record their Tesco Club Card Points.

Triple Software developed an electronic link to Tesco’s system, enabling the loyalty file to be automatically downloaded, ensuring that customers can accrue additional loyalty points from their purchases within the Nutri Centre concessions.Speed of installation was another critical requirement – to meet the building schedule works of the Tesco Slough store opening, Nutri Centre needed to be up and running ready for business within a ten day slot. Triple Software rose to the challenge – all orders were generated electronically by Nutri Centre and passed to Triple Software to format into their ShopMaster software system, ensuring that everything was pre-programmed and ready to go. Triple Software then installed the pre-programmed system on site, carrying out extensive transactional tests to ensure the system worked ready for the opening.Customer perspectiveWhen asked about to comment on Triple Software’s installation service, Paul Barry, Nutri Centre Operations Manager, said “We have been very impressed by the flexible approach shown by Triple Software. The company has always been extremely responsive to our demanding schedule.

When building delays caused tight schedules at the Tesco Newcastle concession store, Triple Software worked with us to ensure we were able to open on time;.Talking about the Toshiba hardware, Paul said “The reliability and robustness of the Toshiba terminals is excellent, ensuring a low total cost of ownership. The growth in the popularity of health products, complementary medicines and sports supplements means that is vital that we have a reliable EPoS system in place capable of dealing with our increasing footfall and allowing uninterrupted trading”.Paul continued, ” The system installed by the Toshiba / Triple Software partnership has given The Nutri Centre an integrated reliable, secure, solution, with automated store and stock activity, as well as provide comprehensive reporting and enabling the company to cope with the exceptionally high number of products from a wide range of suppliers”.The futureAccording to Nutri Centre Director Rohit Mehta, “The pace of the new Nutri Centre openings is likely to pick up now, as we have refined the formula for identifying sites and recruiting suitably qualified personnel, with the next one scheduled for central Edinburgh very soon”When asked how he viewed the Nutri Centre’s future relationship with Triple Software and Toshiba, Operations Manager Paul Barry said, “We are very happy to go forward in partnership with Triple Software and Toshiba confident that we have an EPoS solution in place giving us a total low cost of ownership and allowing us to run our business more efficiently, ensuring our staff are free to focus on our number one priority – our customers”