Coast

Kent's recently opened Bluewater shopping and leisure complex is one of the most fashionable and prestigious in the UK. So it is an appropriate choice of location for the latest store to be opened by Coast, the upmarket fashion retailer owned by high street retailer, Oasis. With 6 outlets across the country, and 22 concessions, Coast is now in growth mode, and has turned to state-of-the-art EPoS technology to help it manage this growth. That EPoS technology is the Epson IR.

In fact, the use of the IR was a result of a recommendation by Southgate-based retail systems specialist, Esperus. But it was a recommendation designed to fit a clear brief from Coast. "Essentially, we wanted a system which was simple to learn and use in-store," said Coast's commercial director Martyn Cheetham, "that could provide easily accessible sales and stock management information for use in Head Office. We also required a system that would support our move into barcode technology, and which was aesthetically in keeping with our in-store environment."

After a demonstration of the IR, running Esperus software, Martyn Cheetham needed little more persuasion - he immediately saw that the product would deliver Coast's current needs, as well as meeting anticipated future requirements. Certainly, according to Cheetham, there was no question of not meeting his brief in terms of speed and ease of use: "It is vital to our business that we respond quickly to customer needs, in a changing and demanding marketplace. The IR's intuitive touchscreen interface, and Esperus' software provides an exceptionally powerful combination. All in all we feel we have made a good choice to support our aggressive growth."