Tates of Sussex Garden Centre Group, which has four garden centres in the county, has switched to WinRetail from Corby & Fellas. Tate’s director Darren Clift explains how the system is proving to be a success for the group.
In 2020 we decided to review our EPoS and Retail Management systems, as we felt that we needed to take better control of our business and improve efficiency.
Although we were not unhappy with the system that we’d been using for more than 20 years, we decided to ‘review the situation’, and look at what systems were available specifically for garden centres.
Several vendors drew our attention, all of whom offered software with features that we felt would be useful to us; this included Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system, which we knew was used by several prominent garden centres.
Our decision making process was influenced by several factors. Of course, system functionality was key amongst these, but we also wanted to ensure that:
- The vendor was a well-established and stable company, with a track record of providing retail systems to garden centres. Ideally, multi-site businesses of a similar size to us.
- The system would be well supported and that help would always be available as and when we needed it.
- The software was comprehensive and included the features that we felt that we required (and possibly features that we were yet to realise that we needed).
- The system would grow and develop over time, reflecting the ever changing needs of our business
- The software was demonstrably robust, reliable and stable.
- The system was fully integrated and did not consist of a mishmash of disparate modules whose interoperability could not always be relied upon.
- Last, and by no means least, was run by people that we could get on with; who were able to understand our business culture and interpret our ideas.
I’m pleased to say that Corby & Fellas was able to meet our requirements and was able provide us with a system that included:
- Fully integrated ecommerce web site.
- A powerful Business Intelligence (BI)module.
- Customer facing Apps running on smart devices.
- A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module.
- A café/restaurant module.
We began the process of switching systems in February 2021, and I’m pleased to say that the transition to WinRetail was very straightforward.
I’m pleased that we made the decision to install WinRetail, and feel that it was a good decision. I am particularly impressed with Corby & Fellas ability to tailor their software to meet some of the needs that are peculiar to our business.
I am very happy to recommend Corby & Fellas and WinRetail to you.
