SPAR, the world’s largest food retail chain, pilots NCR self-checkout in Slovenia

NCR self-checkouts to save shoppers at SPAR Slovenia stores time and money

LONDON – SPAR, the world’s largest food retail chain with nearly 126,800 stores in 32 countries, has signed an order with NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) to install NCR self-checkouts in 12 SPAR INTERSPAR hypermarkets in Slovenia. The world’s leading self-checkout solution NCR SelfServ™ Checkout enables consumers to scan, bag and pay for goods themselves.

The deployment of the 52 self-checkouts was signed with the support of Printec, NCR Solutions Partner in Eastern Europe. If successful, NCR SelfServ Checkouts could be deployed to other SPAR stores in Slovenia in 2010.

Aspiag (Austria SPAR International AG), SPAR Slovenia’s parent company, grew by 10 per cent to generate €10.66 billion in retail sales in 2008. The self-checkout initiative is designed to continue this growth trajectory by increasing customer service levels and enabling it to operate more cost-effectively.

Aspiag comments, “Just being a convenience provider offering a great product range at great prices is not enough for SPAR. We want to make it as easy as possible to shop at our outlets every single day and believe self-checkout will help us meet that goal. It will enable us to make more paypoints available in-store for customers and free up staff to improve the availability of products in our stores and help shoppers locate items.”

The solution's enhanced design also provides operational efficiencies for retailers and customers. NCR SelfServ Checkout features NCR’s patented two-sided thermal receipt printer, which enables simultaneous printing on both sides of a receipt, reducing paper consumption by up to 45 per cent and speeding up print times. In addition, the NCR RealPOS High Performance Scanner/Scale™ offers superior scanning performance to help make self-checkout scanning even quicker for consumers.

Cash inputs/outputs are arranged side by side to allow for enhanced ease of use for consumers, while “follow-me” lights on the units to guide consumers through each step of the checkout process. NCR SelfServ Checkout now supports standard integrated coin recycling, as well as the option for integrated bill recycling, reducing the frequency with which they need to be replenished.

NCR’s self-service Customer Experience Consulting team leveraged the pan-European experience of NCR SelfServ Checkout implementations to assist and guide SPAR Slovenia with the right checkout configuration and the implementation of operational “best practices” to ensure the optimum customer and staff experience.

Greg Mann, NCR SelfServ Checkout Solution Specialist for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, comments, “Consumers across the world are demanding the speed, convenience and control offered by self-service. Indeed, research shows that shoppers are more likely to shop with a retailer that provides self-checkout technology. SPAR is a great innovator and is differentiating itself from competitors by offering its customers market-leading self-checkout technology.”

Printec, NCR’s largest solutions partner globally, was involved in the overall project implementation, providing local project management, hardware and software installation, training and roll-out support services. Printec Group is South Eastern Europe's leader in transaction automation solutions with annual turnover of 100.7 million euros (FY08). Printec offers NCR products, solutions and services as well as a wide variety of specialised solutions for financial institutions, large retailers, petroleum companies, government organisations as well as many other organisations in the public and private sectors.

NCR SelfServ Checkouts handled over three billion shopping transactions last year in the grocery, do-it-yourself (DIY), general merchandise and health and beauty retail sub-sectors. The deployment at SPAR in Slovenia increases the total number of countries in which NCR’s self-checkout solution is being used to 22 globally.

About SPAR
SPAR is the biggest voluntary retail chain in the world which operates under the same name and appears with a consistent logo in 33 countries. The companies in each country operate completely autonomously and independently from each other and are not connected by corporate law. The international SPAR headquarter has its registered office in Amsterdam and supports the individual SPAR countries by strengthening of the brand name SPAR, the development of the worldwide common purchase as well as the advancement of the mutual exchange of experiences and the acquisition of new SPAR member countries. www.spar-int.com

About Printec
Printec Group is one of the fastest growing Information Technology companies in South Eastern Europe. The Group offers integrated electronic transaction solutions, partnering with vendors such as NCR, Verifone and Talaris. Printec Group’s headquarters are located in Athens, Greece. With subsidiaries in Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, F.Y.R.O. Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Romania, Serbia (including Montenegro), Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Printec is leading the evolution in Banking Solutions and Information Technology in Southeast Europe. For more information about Printec Group, please visit www.printecgroup.com

About NCR Corporation
NCR Corporation (NYSE: NCR) is a global technology company leading how the world connects, interacts and transacts with business. NCR’s assisted- and self-service solutions and comprehensive support services address the needs of retail, financial, travel, healthcare, hospitality, entertainment, gaming and public sector organizations in more than 100 countries. NCR (www.ncr.com) is headquartered in Duluth, Georgia.

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NCR is a trademark of NCR Corporation in the United States and other countries.

News media contact:

Helen McInnes
NCR Corporation
206 Marylebone Road, London, NW 1 6LY
+44(0)208 412 0332
helen.mcinnes@ncr.com

This release was published on openPR.