In Asia, A.S. Watson continues to grow, with Wincor Nixdorf by its side. The retailer now has more than 1,100 stores spread across the Asia-Pacific region, with the greatest concentration in its home base, Hong Kong. It meanwhile has an installed base in Hong Kong of more than 2,400 POS systems. Another 1,000 are in China, the birthplace of A.S. Watson, which began as a small dispensary in Guangzhou, China. The remaining POS systems are located in other markets, such as Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Korea and the Philippines.

Wincor Nixdorf’s service in China includes deploying and maintaining not only its own hardware and software but also managing the equipment of other suppliers to the retail giant. “We provide a full service, handling all of A.S. Watson’s IT retail-related services,” says Steve Chan, Managing Director of Wincor Nixdorf Hong Kong and Regional Director of Retail Systems of Wincor Nixdorf Asia.

Indeed, whether it is Asia or Europe, the German IT company today offers A.S. Watson a singlepoint of contact, providing platform, implementation and maintenance services through its local subsidiaries and partners. And more: The vendor meets all the group’s challenging demands for fast communication, attractive prices, flexibility and simplicity.

“We chose and continue to work with Wincor Nixdorf as a partner as they are the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) leader and they approached the relationship in an open and direct fashion,” says Gert Vos, A.S. Watson Group IT Director. “We have very clear lines of communication established to deal with issues and opportunities, and Wincor Nixdorf has delivered on all these. The company has provided a winning mixture of centralized responsibility and local delivery teams.”