Alimerka lets CashGuard take care of the cash

HERE IS A STORY ABOUT INCREASED SECURITY AND LOWER COSTS

Alimerka is the largest food retail chain in the region of Asturias in Spain, offering its customers high quality products at an affordable price through a network of 173 supermarket stores. Founded in 1986, the chain employs over 6000 people.

The Challenge

For smooth and continuous daily work, it is necessary that all internal processes operate effectively. For the purpose of modernization of the stores and the cash handling process, Alimerka decided to get rid of manual cash handling and to automate the cash management process. Manual cash handling makes business vulnerable to errors and shrinkage and diverts resources from the core business and customer service.

The Solution

After a series of pilot projects, Alimerka chose CashGuard’s cash management solution.

“We selected CashGuard from StrongPoint due to reliability, speed and capacity of the solution”, said José Luis Rey, CIO of Alimerka S.A.

The essence of the CashGuard solution is that the cash management system is closed and automated. When the customer is ready to pay, he or she hands the banknotes to the cashier, who inserts these into the note recycler in the slot for the right denomination and then inserts the coins in the coin recycler. The system always hands out the correct change and since the system is closed and automated, shrinkage is completely eliminated.

The Result

Reduced Time and Resources Needed for Operations

Alimerka reduced operating costs as its personnel now spends much less time on handling cash and can focus on customer service and other revenue-generating activities instead of handling of notes and coins. Moreover, Alimerka’s personnel now spends less time, and needs less recourse on reconciliation and other cash-related tasks as CashGuard makes it possible to recycle cash.

Better Customer Service and Enhanced Security

The transaction time is reduced because the system processes cash faster than a cashier and always gives the correct change eliminating double-counting by the cashier.

Since the staff has no access to the cash in the drawer and all transactions are calculated and administered by the system, it removes the risk of shrinkage from the cash register as well as human errors. Furthermore, Alimerka’s customers now feel more secure as they always get the correct change and all the banknotes are checked for its authenticity.

Integration of the software was completed during 2015. Alimerka and StrongPoint plan to install over 790 CashGuard systems in all 173 stores by the end of 2017.

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