Net sales in the Hardware business ended the year lower. One reason here was a significant fall in orders for EPOS systems, reflecting a slide in the market as a whole, with customers often delaying new and replacement investment in view of the economic crisis. In addition, sales volume was under pressure from the decline in prices caused by excess supply in the market.
On the other hand, sales of high-end retail systems were excellent, with the self-service and automated checkout business even recording a substantial increase on the previous year.
Wincor Nixdorf also managed to exploit further potential at an international level with specific solutions for individual retail sectors, e.g., electronic goods chains and DIY stores. The key to our success lies in concentrating on the needs of consumers when designing an extremely wide range of solutions for different retail formats from discounters to specialist outlets. These solutions range from express checkouts for small-scale purchases to self-service terminals for larger purchases, from mobile product scanning to systems involving physically separate scan and payment procedures. Dedicated solutions, e.g., for handling bulky or heavy items, are also available.
Again in the high-end area, sales of reverse vending systems were also very good. Wincor Nixdorf won over half the orders for which tenders had been invited in Germany, and we also significantly improved our market position in other countries. Thanks to our broadly based portfolio of automated solutions, we are well placed to benefit from growing worldwide demand for systems of this kind.
There was considerable market interest, too, in our retail cash management (Glossary) systems. This was led by growing demand for our technology, which enhances the efficiency and security of cash management between the branch checkout and the retailer’s cash office (Glossary) . In the year under review, we therefore drove ahead with developments in this field in order to improve our already strong market position. By way of example, as part of a project for the German branches of an international service station chain and in partnership with a bank, we presented a system that combines the checkout function with an option to withdraw cash.
Sales of Software/Services (Glossary) in the Retail segment showed a slight fall in the year under review.
The main focus here lies on the development and provision of software and services for all the procedures and processes that make up, or are related to, retail branch operations. In most cases, this includes a link to Professional Services (Glossary) such as consulting (Glossary) or the modification of software to meet a company’s specific requirements. Drawing on the abilities of our subsidiary Wincor Nixdorf Retail Consulting GmbH, we succeeded in further cementing our key strenght centered around the introduction of SAP software for retailers.
Wincor Nixdorf’s development activities focused mainly on our TP Application Suite (Glossary) software platform, which allows retail groups to use the same software at all their branches throughout the world. The demands made of this software, which controls the full range of retail-specific processes, are becoming increasingly complex – from managing bonus programs and the use of touchscreens through to the integration of modern services such as self-scanning and self-checkout (Glossary) . Another important requirement is that the branch’s software can be integrated into central systems.
Our Namos software aimed at international service station network operators was also thoroughly updated to meet customer requirements, with features including pump and car wash control at individual stations, the initial processing and evaluation of all data for the head office, as well as management and accounting for service stations and convenience branches, including decentralized and centralized ERP (Glossary) data. Thanks to its open, multilayered architecture, the software can be used in a global network regardless of the business model and also allows the fast and problem-free integration of new functions.
The Services business recorded a slight fall.
We extended the network of service specialists for international retail groups that we had built up in previous years. As a result, we won a number of new international customers for our Product Related Services. We also introduced our portfolio of standardized, fixed-price services into other countries. In Germany, following sales of our reverse vending systems, we signed multi-year service agreements to provide ongoing support.
Results from Managed Services (Glossary) remained positive, thanks, for example, to the above-mentioned project with a major international service station chain and its banking partner in Germany. Alongside other functions, our software controls the processing and onward transmission of service station payment data and of the data used for the processing of disbursements. We also generate information about cash levels and cash movements for the bank. This data can then be used to optimize secure cash transports.
We attracted new customers in several countries such as China with our dedicated service concepts for international retail chains that wish to expand their branch network worldwide (“New Store Opening”). Introduced with considerable success the previous year, our service involves providing support for the opening of new branch outlets. In many cases, we support these customers in their domestic markets and help them to expand internationally. Depending on the structure of each contract, Wincor Nixdorf can take over all the tasks involved in opening a new branch – from the installation of POS (Glossary) systems and control of the sub-contractors helping to prepare the new sales premises to operation of the IT infrastructure.
