Imerco shows the way

– How to become an efficient retail chain

The third of September 2007 was a key date in the history of Imerco. It was the day that the chain's independent stores and legal entities were re-structured to form one centrally-owned retail chain of 155 outlets, four of which are now run on a franchise basis. The restructuring process was particularly demanding and was made possible by an integrated IT solution which incorporated all operational, administrative and bookkeeping activities.

Imerco Managing Director Ib Berntsen says:”The process of moving from a free association to a centrally-owned chain went very well thanks to the energetic involvement of former owners and our employees and suppliers. Our IT system was also absolutely key to the transformation – without a solid foundation it had been impossible to build anything when there are so many systems to integrate”.

The work of streamlining Imerco's IT system actually began about two years before the retailer's transformation to a centrally-owned concept. ”Our ambition was to have an IT system that was at least as good as the very best retail chains – nothing else was good enough”.

Ib Berntsen and Finance Director Mikael Løgstrup are both of the opinion that installing a new IT system has probably saved them about a year's work. ”It makes a huge difference from an investor's perspective that the IT system is geared to a central ownership set-up.
When the systems are in place, you can spend time perfecting your organ-isational and business processes instead of working on the IT system. It's no secret that it's eased the process of selling Imerco as a centrally-owned retail chain now investors, thanks to the fully-integrated IT system, have access to an overview of the entire business which can answer most of   their questions very quickly”.

Quick and easy

Finance Director Mikael Løgstrup says:”Stores need to spend their time doing what they're good at. Then we can manage administrative tasks, stock control and bookkeeping centrally”.

Today the chain's 155 stores are ”users” of the integrated IT system. The stores are very happy with the solution as it's easy to operate, both for employees working on tills and for managers who have optimised a number of routine processes. For example, when retailers have approved them, all invoices from suppliers are now entered automatically into the system where they are registered in bookkeeping and stock control systems – which saves a lot of time.

Customers can feel the difference

Imerco’s customers have also experienced the advantages of the new integrated IT solution. Imerco’s gift certificates, for example, can now be redeemed nationwide. The customer is given a plastic card which automatically tracks the amount on the card as well as taking care of bookkeeping for the card issuer and the seller.

Imerco plan to expand their offering with an online ”Gift Guide” in combination with the chain's new web shop.

”We are able to improve our processes continually, and that's good for us and good for our customers. Just because things are going well we're not going to rest on our laurels. We can always do things even better”.

Integration is the way forward

Because the IT solution covers all stores across Denmark it's easy to gen-erate a broad palette of statistical information. As Ib Berntsen says: ”We can access detailed information relating to a particular range or product and we can track one product in a number of different categories. We can measure sales by shops, staff, postcodes or regions. We can also calculate profits generated by particular campaigns and use the information gathered to adjust our marketing budget and make life easier for our buyers”.

”The real challenge for us is to exploit the knowledge and information that's now available to us to its full potential. The obvious next step is to integrate an advanced business intelligence module to help us stay ahead of the game and allow us to react even quicker than we do currently”.

When that's said, it's also worth mentioning that with a turnover of more than 1.4 billion DKK Imerco is already a market leader. A position which Managing Director Ib Berntsen is quick to attribute to the following factors: ”We have highly skilled staff, we've got a really good IT system, a strong new visual identity and effective marketing that builds on real and detailed knowledge of our consumers' habits.”