Virgin Megastores and Eqos Win "Retail Technology Initiative of the Year" award
- Online trading information system, co-developed with Eqos, has saved Virgin Megastores in excess of one million pounds -
London, UK - Mar 9, 2007 - Virgin Megastores has scooped the "Retail Technology Initiative of the Year" award for an online trading information system it developed with sourcing and supplier management experts Eqos. Winners of the Retail Week Awards were announced at a gala dinner at London's Grosvenor House Hotel on 1 March 2007.
Virgin's online trading information system was hailed as a "simple solution to a complex problem" that would be recognized by many retailers. It enables buyers to negotiate with manufacturers and distributors to put the best promotional deal on the shelves. The retailer's buyers typically negotiate several hundred unique "one off" deals a month, involving for instance supplier marketing support and discounted prices for limited periods. There are approximately 200,000 active lines at any one time, and previously buyers often agreed non-standard deals either verbally or with limited documentation.
Virgin created a more structured collaborative platform to formalize deals and manage terms using the Eqos Supplier Management solution. It is accessible to suppliers as well as the retailer and has led to more accurate invoice matching and a major reduction in written-off margin. The total amount saved is estimated to be at least £1 million.
"This award is a tribute to the Virgin Retail buying and IT teams, our suppliers' sales teams and the Eqos team, all of whom have contributed to delivering significantly improved supplier-retailer collaboration," said Tony Johnson, IT Director of Virgin Retail. "To win a Retail Week Award is a prestigious and highly valued accolade. We are delighted to share this award with Virgin," added Mike Quinn, CEO, Eqos. "We enjoyed working collaboratively with Tony's team and our partner, Kurt Salmon Associates, to deliver a solution that continues to deliver business benefits to this most valued customer." Those short-listed for the award were Marks & Spencer - Franchise Support Portal, and SPAR UK - Virtual Academy.
Other winners on the night included the John Lewis Partnership for Retailer of the Year, M&S for Advertising Campaign of the Year, Asos.com - Online Retailer of the Year, Inditex (owners of Zara) for international Retailer of the Year, and Tesco who won the coveted Consumers' Favourite Retailer title. Sponsors included KSA, Microsoft and Oracle.
About the Retail Week Awards
The Retail Week Awards, now in their 12th year, have grown to become an important and eagerly awaited event in the retail calendar. Sponsored by Microsoft, the Retail Technology Initiative of the Year category aims to recognize a retail initiative in back-office, technology or supply chain that clearly demonstrates efficient business benefits. More information can be found at http://www.retail-week.com/awards
About Virgin Megastores
Virgin Retail operates the Virgin Megastores banner. Over a million people visit a Virgin Megastore somewhere in the world every day. Virgin Megastores remains at the forefront of popular culture with the broadest range of music, movies and games in the world. The first Virgin record store opened in London's Oxford Street in 1971 and in 1979 the company took over the site at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road. As well as a high profile retail estate in the UK, including the landmark Number One Piccadilly Store, London, Virgin has stores in the Republic of Ireland, USA, France, Australia, Greece, Japan, Kuwait and Lebanon. More information can be found at www.virgin.com
About Eqos
Eqos is a leading provider of on-demand global sourcing and supplier management solutions for the retail supply chain. Founded in 1997, the company has offices in the U.S., U.K. and Hong Kong. Eqos' solutions streamline processes associated with private label merchandise strategies from product concept through production and ultimate delivery to the retailer. Eqos' solutions leverage its SOA (Services Oriented Architecture) along with retailer legacy enterprise and supply chain applications to build forward thinking cross-enterprise processes that promote collaboration between retailers, their suppliers, buying offices and other trading partners. Today, Eqos' on-demand solutions are used by major retailers such as Best Buy, Debenhams, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Virgin Megastores. More information can be found at www.eqos.com
For further information, please contact:
Paul van de Braak , Effective Communications, Europe
Tel: +31 299 656404
E-mail: effective-communications@planet.nl
