Palmer and Harvey forms Strategic Partnership with PCMS

Palmer and Harvey (P&H) are pleased to announce a long term strategic partnership with PCMS, one of the UK’s leading retail services companies. This partnership will transfer the management of P&H EPoS clients (YP Electronics) to The PCMS Group plc, based in Coventry. P&H have chosen PCMS not only because of their commitment to service excellence, but also their current product portfolio which is a market leading EPoS solution worldwide. Chris Etherington CEO of P&H says "with the changing models within UK convenience P&H sees the need for a next generation EPoS solution that will offer convenience retailers significant benefits – including improved support and system monitoring, inherent disaster recovery, new store system functionality and integrated loss prevention reporting"

 

Over the last 6 months P&H has conducted a full review of the service convenience retailers are receiving and has recognised the benefits a larger, dedicated retail support provider can bring – and have therefore signed this 5 year support agreement with PCMS. PCMS’ emphasis will be on continuing to support the Sprint and Sinqua products. The focus will be on improved levels of service to customers, to ensure that incidents are handled as quickly and effectively as possible with increased call resolution rates.

 

PCMS is a leading provider of integrated retail systems and Managed IT support services and has over 25 years experience, providing market leading EPoS and retail services to convenience customers and also major high street retailers in the UK such as the Co-op, Orange, Marks & Spencer, Waitrose and recent addition John Lewis Partnership. Crucially PCMS have a great deal of convenience experience through working with major convenience brands in the UK, North and South America. BeanStore has already been integrated with the P&H supply chain and will form the foundation of P&H’s propositions to the changing models in the UK convenience market.

 

Chris Etherington adds, "We are confident that this alliance will provide our customers with an improved level of service across call handling, incident logging and call updates." PCMS and P&H are working closely together on the transition of services, to ensure continuity of service with minimal disruption. All of the current processes to contact the support team remain in place. We are also very enthusiastic about the additional services that PCMS, with their size and retail client base, can bring to our convenience customers. The PCMS product BeanStore is already installed in a number of formats and market sectors that are becoming imperative in our markets”.

 

Richard Smith, Managing Director of PCMS adds, "We already take over 80,000 calls a month through our Coventry based help desk, supporting other people’s systems so we are looking forward to working with P&H customers and showing that we can add significant added value to the investment they have already made in technology"

 

ENDS

 

Notes to Editors:

 

Palmer & Harvey

 

Palmer and Harvey (‘P&H’) is the largest full range delivered wholesaler and one of the largest privately owned companies in the UK, with an annual turnover of more than £4 billion.

 

P&H was founded in 1925 and began life as a traditional tobacco and confectionery wholesaler. Since then the Company has broadened its wholesale offering and customer base considerably. P&H has become recognised as the one stop shop for the busy retailer meeting the needs of CTN's, High Street convenience stores, Forecourts, Off-Licences and Supermarkets in both the independent and multiple sectors The Company offers competitive packages at every service level and up to 9,000 lines spanning ambient (including Alcohol), Chilled and Frozen products. It also owns Symbol fascias Mace, Mace Express, Supershop and Your Store - an estate in excess of 720 stores.

 

During the past years, P&H has further strengthened its services to both independent and multiple customers through the development of its trading packages and infrastructure. As part of this the Company

 

  • brought together its Chilled and Ambient offering.
  • acquired T&A Symonds and Youngs to complement its existing warehouse infrastructure in the South West and the North East of England.
  • launched Partnership Plus, an ongoing tailored growth package providing retail solutions to independent retail customers in areas such as specialised category management, stock merchandising including best in class planograms, expert business advice identifying new sales opportunities and exclusive promotional packages for big brand products.
  • Introduced the Plus News service to deliver a hassle-free, profitable News section for the independent trade through increased availability, reduced waste and strong monthly promotional packages, including some fantastic cross-category initiatives.
  • Developed a new transactional website offering 24-hour ordering which is designed to provide greater flexibility to customers and add real value to their businesses.