WASHINGTON – Feb. 13, 2005 — Lunardi’s Markets, a Bay Area independent grocery chain noted for outstanding personal service and uncompromising quality, has chosen StoreNext Retail Technologies LLC to upgrade its IT operations with a new point-of-sale and back office system for six of its Northern California stores. The announcement was made at the Food Marketing Institute’s (FMI) 2005 MARKETECHNICS show in Washington, D.C. Feb. 13-15.
Retail Management Systems (RMS), StoreNext’s Bay Area dealer, worked in tandem with StoreNext to chart a migration path with its market-leading ISS45 point-of-sale (POS) system and Retalix Back Office (RBO™) advanced system for in-store management. RMS has been closely associated with Fujitsu and StoreNext for the past 14 years.
The rollout, which also included outfitting all 46 cashier lanes chainwide with Fujitsu TeamKey™ touch-screen displays and TeamPoS 2000 terminals, began in the fourth quarter of 2004. Averaging about one store per week over a six-week period, the rollout was completed easily in time to handle the holiday shopping season. RMS, headquartered in Fresno, Calif., also will provide ongoing service and support to the grocer.
Tony Lucia, Lunardi’s general manager, said that the company was prompted to make the change due in large part to new encryption standards coming into play in 2005, which would not be supported by the legacy system.
“All of our data is centralized,” said Lucia, “so it was important that we achieved our objectives with a manageable investment without turning the whole company upside down. ISS45 was the only POS system we evaluated that was compatible with our CIX-hosted system and it outperformed the others.”
Tom Bassett, sales manager for RMS, said that Lunardi’s began the evaluation process for a migration path from their legacy POS and back-office systems about two years ago.
“We had to be able to integrate existing printers and scanners at the point of sale while proving that our proposed solution could outperform their previous system, he said. “The StoreNext solution was the clear-cut winner.”
Bassett also said that Lunardi’s wholesaler, Unified Western Grocers, played an instrumental role in demonstrating to Lunardi’s that the proposed solution not only “worked as advertised,” but was an excellent fit within the wholesaler distribution channel.
“The support of UWG gave us the confidence level we needed,” added Lucia.
“ISS45’s open design and support for industry standards enables independent grocers to leverage previous system investments and take full advantage of emerging technologies,” said Ray Carlin, president and CEO of StoreNext. “When coupled with RBO, grocers have complete front-to-back-door control over inventory, pricing, signage and reporting, givng them the data and power they need for real-time decision-making.”
Lunardi’s was founded by Alfredo Lunardi in 1953, when he acquired a local San Francisco store called “Mother’s Market” located at 23rd and Irving Streets. With the help of his sons Ralph and Paul, they eventually opened six more Bay Area locations. Today, Lunardi’s Markets attracts a loyal following in Evergreen, Burlingame, Belmont, Los Gatos, Walnut Creek, San Jose and San Bruno. Each Lunardi’s Market spans about 28,000 to 30,000 sq. ft. and includes meat, produce, seafood and poultry, wine and cheese, deli and bakery departments.
About StoreNext
StoreNext Retail Technologies LLC is the No. 1 supplier of retail technology to independent grocers and regional chains. Based in Plano, Texas, StoreNext is a joint venture of Retalix Ltd. (NASDAQ: RTLX) and Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc. and markets Fujitsu POS hardware, Retalix’s ISS45 POS software and Internet Connected Services for managing stores via Web-enabled applications. StoreNext is the only retail IT company focused exclusively on meeting the needs of this wholesaler-served market with packaged solutions that were previously available, affordable or practical only for large chains.
Web site: www.storenext.com
U-Scan is a registered trademark of Fujitsu Transaction Solutions Inc.
