Net sales in the Retail segment reached €718 million, down 7% on the previous year (2007/2008: €772 million). EBITA (Glossary) fell 23% to €34 million (2007/2008: €44 million), with a corresponding decline in the EBITA margin to 4.7% (2007/2008: 5.7%).
Hardware sales in the Retail segment suffered from the global downturn in demand for EPOS systems. Unfortunately, as this area accounts for a substantial proportion of overall sales in the Retail segment, it was not possible to make up for this slide despite achieving success in other areas, such as our high-end business in self-service and automation solutions or the software and Professional Services (Glossary) business.
Net Sales and EBITA History: Retail. €m
During the year under review, the main business and development news in the Retail segment was as follows:
“Greener,” More Efficient EPOS Systems.
During the reporting year, Wincor Nixdorf made further technical improvements to the portfolio to include new types of system that meet the increased demands of our retail customers for a combination of greater efficiency and lower environmental impact. Using cutting-edge processor technology, we produced the first ever systems that require much less energy and generate less heat. These new systems can also be configured with a solid state disk instead of a hard disk. A solid state disk is a storage medium. It works in a comparable way to a conventional magnetic hard disk but has no mechanical components and is therefore more robust. In turn, this reduces operating costs by a significant margin and increases system availability rates. Another example is our checkout systems (Glossary) , which have been equipped for the first time with new Intel Active Management Technology (AMT). AMT improves remote diagnosis and online fault resolution as well as allowing access to systems that have been switched off or blocked. This leads to a major reduction in downtime and in the frequency with which technical staff need to be deployed on site.
Automated Checkout – Different Scenarios.
During the year under review, there was a marked increase in the number of invitations to tender for automated self-checkout (Glossary) solutions, especially in Europe. An increasing number of test installations also moved forward into larger-scale rollouts (Glossary) .
Wincor Nixdorf came out on top in a number of large-scale international invitations to tender, allowing it to expand the already strong position in the European market. In collaboration with our customers, we implemented tailored checkout solutions at retail branch outlets in over 30 projects and more than 20 countries. The systems were configured individually to take account of different payment methods, size of shopping basket and customer frequency. By way of example, in one project for a large international furnishing company, Wincor Nixdorf converted half of the traditional checkouts to self-checkout systems.
Optimizing Branch Cash Processes.
In the year under review, we made further targeted improvements to our retail cash management (Glossary) portfolio, the aim of which is to optimize cash processes wherever they occur at branch level – from the checkout to crediting the account of the retailer. Thanks to cash management solutions for the checkout, staff are no longer required to perform routine tasks and retailers can cut their substantial process costs. Our solutions also minimize inventory differences by protecting against incorrect payments in and out. They also provide efficient protection against theft, robbery and fraud. There was particular demand from larger retail environments for automated solutions in the cash office (Glossary) that consolidate cash receipts in a central system (cash point): this removes the need for time-consuming counting and consolidation of cash holdings.
Further Improvements to Software Portfolio for International Retail Groups.
Fiscal 2008/2009 saw the renewed expansion of our software portfolio, designed to control and manage processes at branch level, the aim being to focus even more closely on the challenges facing international retailers. We added a number of functions to our TP Application Suite (Glossary) , including a component designed to personalize contact with customers and win their loyalty. Retailers are given an overview of the structure and purchasing behavior of their customers through the use of loyalty cards and bonus points and a variety of segmenting and evaluation mechanisms. At branch level, an ERP (Glossary) component was upgraded to provide continuous, up-to-date information on stock levels at all branches. There was particular demand in the reporting year from international fashion groups.
Outstanding Portfolio for Service Station Operators.
During the year under review, we expanded our range of solutions aimed at the operators of service station networks. As a result, we were able to win several new customers in the form of international petroleum groups.
Professional Services for Tailored Customer Solutions.
With a particular focus on tailoring checkout solutions to individual customers, the approach adopted by Wincor Nixdorf takes into account the entire process chain and specific features of each branch to develop and implement the most appropriate solutions. Following the expansion of these combined “Professional Services” in the year under review, our portfolio now ranges from process and IT consulting (Glossary) and the implementation and integration of solutions into the customer’s IT landscape to software application control. We provide ongoing support to international customers from over thirty competence centers.
