ADEG AG chooses JBA

Far-reaching structural changes in Austria`s food retail business back in 1995, prompted retail chain ADEG AG, currently the third largest, to adopt an entirely new strategy for its operations, as well as undertaking a comprehensive reorganisation of its business divisions.

Austria`s food business was impacted by enormous structural changes since turnover in the sector had been stagnating, and the number of retail businesses dropping steadily. 1995 saw the dispersal of the country`s largest retail food chain, Konsum, and since then, the market has been dominated by German groups.

In the wake of this development, ADEG decided to entirely alter its course for the future. As a classic buying co-operative, ADEG had long been bound by the regional nature of its service concepts, and operated through the medium of eight largely independent regional centres. With the slump in the retail sector, the number of members involved with the co-operative slumped as well. This prompted ADEG to adopt an entirely new approach in that it departed from the traditional regional orientation, and implemented the successive merger of eight regional centres with the Vienna-central establishment, while extending the network of branches. This brought about an ongoing centralisation of purchasing, marketing and distribution, as well as the reorganisation of management and administration. In early 1998 decided to standardise on JBA Software for the group`s financial accounting, after an extensive search and evaluation process.

ADEG has incorporated the complete financial model (finance accounting, asset accounting, costs accounting) from JBA into the ADEG Group. The software runs on a central server in Vienna, with access to it from across the whole of Austria. More than 20,00 0 capital goods items from the seven former regional asset accounting systems were harmonised and merged to achieve this, as were the accounting systems of the nine subsidiaries and participant companies.

For further information, please contact Barry du Plessis at tel. (011) 804 5062; fax (011) 804 5072; e-mail barry@jba.co.za

@EditorNote = Editors note

JBA South Africa (Pty) Limited, is the South African subsidiary of JBA International Plc, which in turn owned by London Stock Exchange listed JBA Holdings, a leading world-wide provider of enterprise management software solutions, with local offices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.