QD Stores is a highly successful, independently owned retailer operating a chain of discount retail outlets throughout the East of England and the Home Counties. Based in many of the region's larger towns and cities, the company sells household goods, clothing and general merchandise.

QD, which has an annual turnover of 80 million pounds, operates 24 stores ranging in size from 7,500 ft2 to 70,000 ft2. Servicing a population in excess of 10 million, the company has a diverse range of merchandise, with over 40,000 product lines on offer to customers.

Stock is distributed from a modern, 155,000 ft2 distribution centre, located in Snetterton, Norfolk. Goods are dispatched, from the centre, each day to all the stores.

Corby & Fellas have worked in partnership with QD Stores for the last 15 years, designing, writing, supplying and supporting the systems that handle all aspects of the company’s retail operations.

QD’s confidence in C&F is demonstrated by the fact that the 3rd generation of PoS systems (WinPoS) is currently being installed throughout the stores. The new WinPoS software links seamlessly with the recently implemented Stock & Warehousing system. QD are delighted with the performance of both.

Stores & Point of Sale

QD’s requirements for a PoS system have always been very demanding; the software must be fast, reliable, robust easy to use and, above all, well supported.

With over 600 shop floor staff, many of whom are part time, ease of use and speed of training are essential in keeping costs down. Training times for WinPoS are typically less than 30 minutes.

Speed of operation is also very important to QD, who operate supermarket style checkouts. Delays at the checkouts can have measurable impact on sales. Speed of operation has the added benefit that fewer checkouts are needed.

The need for a robust and reliable system is, of course, essential to QD. By assuring that there can be no single point of failure the WinPoS system has a remarkable record for reliability. In the last 15 years QD has never lost a single days trading because of a PoS system failure.

Warehousing & Stock Control

A key element of QD’s operations, is the efficient and timely movement of stock in and out of the company’s distribution centre. Slender sales margins demands that distribution costs are kept to a minimum, whilst ensuring that stores are fully and appropriately stocked.

With this in mind, QD decided to introduce C&F’s real-time warehouse control system, which forms part of the Retail Management Control System (WinRMC). This system was designed around the use of hand-held Radio Frequency (RF) terminals, a huge advance on the paper based systems that QD had been using.

The use of RF terminals freed the warehouse staff from many of the constraints of a conventional batch system. Stock is stored dynamically and is not tied to specific locations or areas. The system knows the location of all stock in real-time.

Picking is now a simple, logical and efficient process. The use of RF hand-held data terminals allows far greater throughput than was possible with a batch system. The 20 pickers, who normally work 5½ days per week, are able to handle the stores insatiable thirst for stock.

QD Stores web site can be viewed at www.qdstores.co.uk