22-07-05 Fuller's to save over £1million with EPoS investment

Fuller’s £1 million investment with Zonal will pay back comfortably

Fuller, Smith & Turner is the UK’s premier independent brewer and retailer, famous for its Cask Beers, Pubs, Bars and Hotels. Fuller’s has been voted Pub Company of the Year twice in the last five years, and its London Pride is the leading premium cask ale in the country. Fuller’s cask ales have won more CAMRA awards than any other brewer in the country.

Fuller’s managed estate consists of 118 pubs. Their existing EPoS system was life expired both physically and technically and the software and hardware was increasingly expensive to maintain. Ms Howell was tasked with finding a replacement. “Choosing the right system to replace our existing one was a very important decision for us, as we would be using which ever one we selected for the next ten or so years,” she says.

More features, better service, the right price

The decision was so important that Ms Howell spent two years evaluating every system available, drawing up a short list of four solutions each of which were piloted over a twelve month period. At the end of this exhaustive selection procedure, Zonal’s Aztec EPoS Management system emerged as the clear winner. “Zonal’s solution had more functionality than the competing products, and was more user friendly than the others,” Ms Howell says. “On top of that, Zonal has a far better reputation for service and support than the other companies we were looking at, and the price was also attractive”.
Fuller’s started rolling out Zonal’s food and beverage management system to the pubs in its managed estate in October 2004, completing the last of the 118 pubs in early June 2005. The installations included Zonal’s latest EPoS terminals, bar and office printers, till drawers, management PCs and Zonal’s Aztec EPoS Management software.

More cost savings

The old system was becoming very expensive to run. Zonal’s Aztec system is far less expensive to maintain and is delivering significant cost savings because of greater functionality.

Each pub is now benefiting from Zonal’s easy-to-use EPoS terminals, which have EFT (electronic funds transfer) capabilities built in. With Zonal, card payments can be processed directly from the terminal instead of moving to a separate credit card device. This not only enables staff to serve customers more quickly, but also makes considerable savings on renting separate card reading devices and telephone lines. Fuller’s will shortly deploy Chip & PIN devices and is working closely with Zonal to develop the Chip & PIN handheld device for ‘pay at table’.

More control over labour costs

Aztec provides Fuller’s pub managers with a tool for more accurate control over all key aspects of the day-to-day running of their pubs; the payroll and labour scheduling module proving particularly useful. Fran Howell says, “Zonal’s software lets them plan rotas in advance and see the costs instantly, so they can then .ne tune them and control their costs when necessary.”

Each pub is linked to Fuller’s Head Office using ADSL broadband connections, and every night the management software polls the pubs to collect sales data, which is fed into the Fuller’s MIS system. “The very next day we are able to look at the performance of each pub, and drill down so we can find out how many pints were sold in a particular pub, what time they were sold, and even who sold them.
In all, Fuller’s has invested over £1 million in the project, and Ms Howell is extremely pleased with the financial impact the system is having on the company.
“We expect the project to pay for itself comfortably and our aim is for the system still to be running 10 years down the line,” she concludes. Refreshing financial news indeed for the brewer, and something in which Zonal can justifably take pride.

Fuller’s Retail Director, Simon Emeny, said: “This is a significant investment for the company. Our managed pubs are going from strength to strength and we felt it was now the right time to invest in a new EPoS system, especially as the existing one was outdated and in need of upgrading.”
“We spent two years looking at all the very best EPoS systems and piloting four different ones and chose Zonal as it offered the best product with the richest functionality, as well as excellent service and support. The new system will not only continue to provide excellent control and management information but will deliver significant cost savings for the company over the next ten years.”
“The overall investment highlights our commitment to improving both service and efficiency within our pubs and we believe it will help support our future growth. It is vital that our managers have the most effective technology to enable them to run their individual outlets smoothly.”
Zonal Managing Director, Stuart McLean, said: “We are delighted to be working so closely with such a respected brewer and pub operator as Fuller’s.”
“We are looking forward to a successful working relationship with the company both now and in the future."

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