Epos system blossoms for Haskins garden centre

Snowhill Plant and Garden Centre is one of the UK's leading independent garden centres, occupying a seven-acre site in Copthorne with a turnover of 7.5m. With the new acquisition added to three other large garden centres near Bournemouth, Southampton and Littlehampton, Haskins expects its group turnover to exceed 30m.

KPOS has been Haskins' IT partner since 1994. The new Snowhill system comprises 6 IBM 4694 tills networked with a Windows RAID server. KPOS also provided RedCard EFTPOS software that can be upgraded for Chip and PIN later this year. The garden centre is linked to KPOS's head office system using a VPN wide area network, and the KPOS total solution also includes local barcode label printing, stocktaking using handheld terminals, and purchase orders entered locally into the KPOS head office merchandising and accounts system.

The KPOS Snowhill implementation had to be achieved quickly, only five weeks after Haskins took over. The key objective was to get the centre trading as quickly as possible introducing Haskins' Gardeners Guild membership database. KPOS services included system build and soak test, bank approval for RedCard, communications setup, weekend installation and project management.

Commenting on the recent order with KPOS, Julian Winfield, Retail Operations Director of Haskins Group says, "Our relationship with KPOS goes back over many years and we knew we could rely upon KPOS to do a good job and to fit in with our demanding timescales."

He concludes, "Snowhill is an important addition to our business and we look forward to continuing to work with KPOS in the future, to adapt and upgrade our IT solutions to meet the continuing needs of our growing and highly specialised business."

Haskins was founded in 1882 and has three other garden centres located at Ferndown near Bournemouth, West End near Southampton and Roundstone at Angmering, West Sussex. Haskins Garden Centres carry out everything for the garden from fertilisers and fungicides to wheelbarrows and watering systems, plus a whole lot more, with a continued focus on plants.

With 28 years of retail experience, KPOS has installed more than 5000 store systems in 25 countries. KPOS is IBM's largest and most successful UK Retail Business Partner and a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider. Specialising in PC-based EPOS systems and linked store and head office applications, KPOS provides complete solutions to retailers with a range of services including software customisation, chain-wide implementation and 7-day support.