Distinguished honor: VR Finance Shop in Weiterstadt is branch of the year

The customers of the Vereinigte Volksbank in Griesheim-Weiterstadt, Germany, are very pleased with their new VR Finance Shop. And they are not alone: the shop has been awarded the title "Best Shop Concept" in the annual Branch of the Year competition sponsored by the financial trade journal "Geldinstitute."   The concept for the award-winning branch office was developed by Wincor Nixdorf in collaboration with the architecture studio "KranzInnenarchitekten" of Göttingen, Germany. The main elements of the concept are based on the WIN@Branch portfolio offered by Wincor Nixdorf.  The competition sponsored by the trade magazine "geldinstitute" was held in conjunction with the Bank and Future Conference, where awards were presented in the categories Best Main Office, Best Branch Office, Best Self-Service Concept and Best Shop Concept.  
The objective of the project in Weiterstadt was to develop a new finance shop having a distinctive banking format at a location inside a busy shopping mall. In the first project phase Wincor Nixdorf analyzed the bank's branch structure and workflow, in addition to its marketing and sales processes, using key elements from its WIN@Branch offering. The architects from Göttingen then used this information in designing the shop, giving special attention to the particular business processes required at the branch. Wincor Nixdorf also was responsible for delivering the self-service systems for the branch – in fact, almost all of the banks participating in the competition submitted concepts that included self-service technologies from Wincor Nixdorf. All cash handling in the award-winning shop involves self-service systems – cash dispensers, cash recycling systems, account statement printers and service terminals. The people working in the VR Finance Shop no longer come into contact with cash. Cash is only accepted in the coffee lounge and for sales of premium gift articles. A Beetle POS system from Wincor Nixdorf has been specifically installed for this purpose. 
The VR Finance Shop is located in the "Loop 5" shopping center in Weiterstadt. Customers and potential bank customers receive information about the bank's products along with personal consulting from staff members on site. Customers can then carry out individual transactions in the shop, or they may prefer the convenience of home banking.
The special product packages offered by the VR Finance Shop were developed by a ten-member planning team involving employees of the Vereinigte Volksbank working in close cooperation with the VR co-op banking organization in Germany. This team developed five special banking service packages for the shop concept. The shop itself is eye-catching due to its appealing architectural design and innovative banking technology.
The purpose of the Branch of the Year competition is to provide financial institutions with inspiring ideas and concepts that can help them meet the challenges expected throughout the industry in the years ahead. The competition focused specifically on branches featuring groundbreaking and future-centric concepts. They were evaluated according to a comprehensive ten-point catalogue of criteria that was developed in cooperation with the Fraunhofer IAO. This year 17 concepts were submitted by several financial institutions, including a bank in Italy and a project in Austria.