Champion Sports

Not long ago, sportswear was the preserve of the professional athlete or amateur fitness fanatic. Not any more. The current vogue for sports labels such as Adidas, Nike and Reebok is increasingly beginning to eclipse denim as the choice for casual weekend wear. Which is good news for stores such as Champion Sports, the leading sports retail company in Ireland, which focuses on catering for this demand.

With its first store opening in 1992, Champion now operates a further 14 outlets and this year took over the chain of 11 Marathon Sports stores, also based in the Republic. In fact, the company has been so successful, that it recently decided to invest in a new EPoS system to help maximise the obvious potential of the market and see it through a further period of expansion. In specifying such a system, the company had some clear objectives, as IT manager Derek Buchanan explained. "In the past, our software has been quite limiting," he said, "and marketing techniques such as mail order, internet sales or loyalty card schemes have just not been an option. We needed a solution which would give us the option of bringing such techniques on-stream."

The first step towards finding such a solution turned out to be a trip to the Retail Solutions Show. Because, at the NEC, he met North London based Epson VAR, Esperus. And the result, as they say, is history: Champion has invested in 60 Epson IRs for its 26 stores, running Esperus's 32 bit Windows software, WinPoS. As Buchanan commented, the new system has helped Champion increase its operational efficiency and has the potential to boost productivity.

Says Buchanan: "Now we can consider any innovative marketing scheme in the short and medium term. Our database will shortly be transferred to SQL as part of the Esperus solution and we plan to introduce a loyalty scheme in the first half of next year. We looked at the IR initially because it was actually the most cost-effective way to invest in the Touchscreen technology we wanted, without having to replace all our existing systems. However, in terms of the increased functionality and power it provides, we have clearly made the right decision. Quite simply, it broadens our horizons."