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The Entertainer chooses Zetes' in-store management solution for stock auditing


Johannesburg, 29 Jul 2014

Zetes has recently implemented its latest generation ZetesAthena In-Store Management solution to The Entertainer, one of the UK's largest toy retailers. The Entertainer selected ZetesAthena to help improve stock auditing across its growing network of UK stores.

ZetesAthena is a cloud-based in-store mobile management solution helping omni-channel retailers optimise stock and pricing processes centrally and consistently across individual store locations. It streamlines time-consuming inventory-related tasks to provide real-time transparency of stock availability within the store, helping to eradicate stock 'blind zones'.

Fact sheet
Solution: ZetesAthena In-Store Management
Industry: Retail
Provider: Zetes
User: The Entertainer

The Entertainer operates a growing chain of 89 high-street toy stores located across the UK. Each year the company is required to complete a physical stock count to ensure its assets can be accurately recorded for accounting purposes. The company outsources the physical counting to a third party specialist, which uses ZetesAthena running on a mobile device to complete stock counts in up to three different stores per day, over a three-month period.

As a result of ZetesAthena's cloud-based architecture, The Entertainer's management team has real-time access to immediate stock count results from any location, which are directly integrated with the company's main ERP system.

Powered by the MCL Mobility Platform, ZetesAthena enables quick deployment and management of software applications and hardware with minimal ongoing management resources required. The MCL Mobility Platform is a cloud-based mobile enterprise application platform (MEAP) dedicated to supply chain operations. It allows to develop, deploy, run and manage mobile applications, users and devices centrally and easily.

"Using ZetesAthena, we have an efficient solution for stock auditing based on the latest cloud technology, which means we have full visibility of the counting process from a decentralised location," says Stuart Molyneux, Head of Risk at The Entertainer. "In addition, because ZetesAthena is also a full in-store management solution, we can potentially scale our use of the software to manage other retail processes in the future, ensuring we have an accurate picture of stock availability and visibility at all times."

"This deployment for The Entertainer is a good illustration of how Zetes' new technology can be used by retailers in a scalable way to cost-effectively streamline basic in-store processes while providing flexibility to easily add more applications as needs evolve. Moreover, this can be done quickly and easily from one central point without resorting to expensive development processes," says Marco Malaihollo, Managing Director, Zetes UK.

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The Entertainer

The Entertainer was founded by husband and wife team, Gary and Catherine Grant, in 1981. In recent years, it has experienced strong growth, and as a multi-channel retailer it now has over 89 stores across the UK and a Web site - www.thetoyshop.com that has 3.85 million visitors each year. The Web site has been awarded "Best Online Retailer" by the Toy Industry Awards for the last two years running. It employs 680 people in its stores, this number rises to 1 000 during the lead-up to Christmas, and a further 100 are based at its head office in Amersham.

All stores are situated in towns, either on the high street or within shopping centres. Every store is clearly laid out, with friendly staff on-hand to advise parents and children with their purchases. As a family-run business it embraces family values and its vision is to become the UK's best loved toyshop, one child, one community at a time and to fill every childhood with wonder.

Zetes

Zetes is an international group highly specialised in identification and mobility solutions. Connecting what matters is at the heart of its business: physical movements and digital flows, Zetes customers and their critical data, but also consumers and corporations, citizens and governments. By using the most innovative technologies, Zetes allows its customers to improve speed, quality and accuracy in order to be on the leading edge of their industry. This has made Zetes a pioneering leader in its market.

The Zetes Group has its headquarters in Brussels and employs more than 1 100 people across 16 countries in EMEA. Zetes aspires to achieve sustainable profits and growth. Its turnover for 2013 amounted to EUR211.5 million. More info: www.zetes.com

ZetesAthena

ZetesAthena is a comprehensive solution for the creation, storage and cloud-based deployment of in-store management applications. Functionality includes: receiving till inventory, re-pricing, replenishment, accessing product information, click and collect, with applications managed centrally and easily, without the need for high capital investment.

Zetes' supply chain solutions

Zetes transforms the way modern supply chains collaborate. Its process optimisation solutions for packaging, warehousing, proof of delivery, direct store delivery and in-store management, connected by Zetes Track & Trace repository, enables major organisations to achieve end-to-end product traceability, from manufacture right through to the household. Zetes plays an important role in helping organisations to meet global traceability challenges such as serialisation, diversion, safety, regulatory compliance and anti-counterfeiting. Zetes integrates the latest cloud-based platforms with its state-of-the-art ImageID, voice recognition, RFID, coding and mobile computing technologies. As a reliable partner, Zetes guarantees the best life cycle management of its solutions through its ZetesTotalCare and ZetesTotalFinance.

Editorial contacts

Gee Motsepe
P and P Communications
(+27) 078 223 1663
gee@pandp.co.za