Thorntons

Knowing the company
Thorntons is one of the UK's best-loved chocolate and confectionery brands. Today it has 378 stores and 222 franchises nationwide, with 4,000 staff, and an increasingly important online channel.

Thorntons prides itself on an exceptionally high level of service, with staff able to provide ingredient information on every product. It also strives to keep customers excited through constant product development and promotions, thereby capitalising on the sector's festive trading peaks.

Defining the strategy
However its POS system was 12 years old: neither PCI-compliant nor easily customised or extended to support new initiatives, its limited functionality threatened Thorntons' service standards and sales potential.

As well as struggling with slow transaction times and restricted information at the POS, personnel were hampered by cumbersome manual processes and day-old data. Thorntons wanted the ability to respond swiftly to trading patterns with timely service, replenishment or promotions.

Thorntons also wanted to better understand its customers to help it shape future product development and multi-channel retailing strategies. With escalating operating costs, it also needed to streamline its operations to remain competitive in this demanding sector.

Choosing the solution
Impressed by its out-of-the-box capabilities and ease of customisation, Thorntons installed 900 Java-based Torex Retail-J solutions at all its stores within four months.

Results were immediate. Seamless integration between the POS and supply chain systems have given Thorntons near real-time visibility of sales, enabling it to respond instantly to current trading conditions with immediate, short-term promotions and timely replenishment as required.

This, along with the rapid deployment, enabled managers to optimise Thornton's retail management process in time for the important Christmas season. The Torex multi-currency capability has also been crucial in capturing Euro spend in Ireland.

Automated cash and stock management instantly sliced administrative chores, enabling staff to spend more time serving customers. Customers also experience better service at the till. The intuitive screens deliver considerably faster transaction times, reducing queues even during trading peaks. EFT times are markedly better too: down from 30 seconds to less than one.

Up-selling has increased, with Torex automatically prompting staff at the POS about appropriate services such as name-writing. In addition, Thorntons' head office now uses Torex POS to dispatch to all staff the latest training updates, as well as customer centric information - such as nutrition, provenance and alcohol warnings - further enhancing the customer experience while cutting operational costs.

Steve Harris, Head of IT, Thorntons, said, "Torex has significantly improved our transaction times, proactivity and internal communications, enabling us to maximise sales opportunities and reduce costs while improving customer satisfaction."

Strategically, Thorntons can now analyse sales data more deeply, and distinguish the relative success of each store or concept. This helps it to better understand its customers, and develop new products and concepts to meet their needs.

In addition, by automating promotion management, Torex enables Thorntons to rapidly assess the effectiveness of marketing initiatives, helping to optimise its return on investment.

Achieving return on investment
"With the Torex Retail-J solution we saw an immediate impact, which is exactly what we needed in the run up to Christmas," said Mr. Harris.

"More importantly, we have invested in technology for the future, which will deliver real value to all parts of the organisation through improved efficiency, sales and insight into our business.

This will hold us in good stead as we continue to consolidate our retail, online and franchise operations into a comprehensive multi-channel unit."

"With Torex, we have invested in technology for the future, which will deliver real value to all parts of the organisation through improved efficiency, sales and insight into our business."

- Steve Harris