Cornish Lime Company

Cornish Lime, now a long standing customer selected Trader after researching to find the right IT system to manage shop sales and integrate with back office processes.

Background

Established since 1991, The Cornish Lime Company, provide specialist building materials to over 300 regular customers. When its trade shop opened 2 years ago, Shop Manager, Mark Joliffe was eager to find the right IT system to manage shop sales and integrate with back office processes.

“Having come from Jewsons, where specialist retail & distribution software managed all of our processes centrally, I had a very real appreciation of the benefits this would bring to us at Cornish Lime.”

Wish List

“Before the shop opened, a system was already in place which basically dealt with our accounts and generated invoices. The old system was cumbersome and I felt it was holding the company back. My specification for a replacement system included Electronic Point of Sale and bar coding features specifically; plus general improvements in the quality of information available in the system and comprehensive management reporting.

When I looked at the Trader™ system, I could see that it is very similar to what I was used to using at Jewsons. The basics of Trader™ are easy to use and the ability to drill down to information such as cost prices and purchase history by customer instantly answered some of the key frustrations we had with the existing system.

We now have 6 staff using Trader™ on a daily basis, and they have been very happy with the difference the system has made. Staff working in the shop are able to serve customers more quickly and with a better level of service than before.”

Tangible Results

“This year alone the business has grown by around 50%. Turnover was £800k last year; this year it’s risen to around £1.2m. Trader™ has become the driver behind our marketing and promotions, helping us to shift slow-moving stock and encourage customers who haven’t visited for a while.

Margin has definitely increased as a result of using Trader™. Visibility of cost prices at point of sale and consistent contract pricing helps to ensure that we sell at the best margins possible. I use the profitability reports to monitor how we’re doing on a daily basis.

It’s reassuring to know exactly where we are, and also means that we can make changes to our strategy if we need to.”

Accurate Stock

“Stock control is infinitely better too, since we can see exactly what we’ve got on the shelves and what needs to be re-ordered. This used to be achievable by manual checking only. We have over 7000 products in stock which meant that this was just not practical to do. Being told that items were out of stock by our customers wasn’t uncommon; a situation which I’m glad to say is now avoided. Bar-coding means that stock records are 100% accurate – even down to product variations such as size and colour.”

Professional Image

“In many ways, Trader™ has helped us to ensure that The Cornish Lime Company is more organised, better informed and projects a professional image to our customers.

Another excellent example of this positive change in processes can be seen in the way quotations are now delivered. The impression which is made when we deliver a properly formatted quote rather than a scribbled piece of paper can’t be measured. The added benefit is that again, when we create quotes from the system, margins are readily available – so no nasty surprises. The result is a competitive quote, delivered quickly which ensures us the very best margins possible.”