McBride's SPAR

The McBride Retail Group is one of the largest independent SPAR retailers across the Northern Ireland region of the United Kingdom. Established in 1988, the retail group now has 16 successful SPAR stores.

Requirements

The McBride SPAR’s store in Scaffog, Northern Ireland, was looking for ways to improve price accuracy, time efficiency, and decrease costs. They were also seeking to enhance their margins and customer service, which led to the installation of around 4,000 SOLUM Electronic Shelf Labels (ESL). The ESL models chosen range from the smallest Newton sizes to Newton Freezer labels.

Results

According to Damien Boardman, Store Manager of McBride’s SPAR Store in Scaffog, using the ESLs ensures the accuracy of their displayed prices due to Newton’s fast update speed. The labels helped reduce the workload and time consumed updating the prices because there is no more need to change paper labels manually. The store achieved cost-efficiency by reducing paper production and wastage caused by frequent shelf label reprinting. 

The Scaffog branch also availed the AIMS subscription as well as the scanning device system that allows for a more seamless process. With AIMS as the label management system, the staff could easily enter the new data that needed to be displayed on the labels, and several labels could be updated simultaneously. Even updating just one label at a time is no hassle, as the scanning device system allows the staff to point and scan to the specific label they need to update, changing the product name, price, or expiration date displayed on one label without affecting the others.

Additionally, the staff find the Newton labels, AIMS, and the scanning device very easy to use in a fast-paced retail environment. 

“This has definitely been hugely beneficial to us,” says Boardman about the SOLUM ESL. “It’s made life easier for everybody. Things are quicker and more accurate. So far, it’s been a success for us.”