Gebr. Heinemann KG equips Travel Value & Duty Free and Concept & Licence Shops with GK/Retail
Schoeneck, 24 March 2009 – Gebr. Heinemann KG, one of the leading operators of airport shops, has started to roll out GK/Retail at its retail channel. The first stage involves installing the market-leading retail solution from GK SOFTWARE AG in approx. 130 of the company’s shops at airports in Germany and Denmark. GK/Retail has been adapted to the special requirements of this project, which involves selling items at airports and the duty-free business. GK SOFTWARE AG is acting as the prime contractor in this project and is responsible for the complete roll-out, service and support.
The traditional Hanseatic trading company Gebr. Heinemann commissioned GK SOFTWARE AG to equip the Travel Value & Duty Free and Concept & Licence shops with GK/Retail in the spring of 2008. The first steps were taken to gradually switch the stores at German airports to GK/Retail in the fall of 2008. The roll-out in Germany should be complete by the end of this year, if all goes according to plan. Alongside this, preparations are being made to switch the stores in Denmark and this process is due to start in the next few months. There are also plans to equip the Gebr. Heinemann shops in other countries with the software at a later date.
As the retail sector at airports requires special features, GK/Retail has been expanded to include specific airport functions. The flexible architecture of the standard software meant that the project could be realized in a very short time – the blueprint and development phase leading up to the first active pilot run only took about six months. During this period, GK SOFTWARE implemented the special requirements for Gebr. Heinemann and new hardware and the legal requirement to detect air ticket data were integrated in the store software. At the same time, connections were created with the different ERP systems used (SAP and Navision) – depending on the type of store – via the standard XML interface of the StoreWeaver middleware. Gebr. Heinemann KG is planning to make use of further opportunities to establish customer loyalty and approach customers with specific aims at POS units in future – all based on the new store software.
This is the first project where GK SOFTWARE AG is operating as the prime contractor and, among other things, is providing the full 24/7 service for the stores on behalf of Gebr. Heinemann. Hans Lechner, IT Manager at Gebr. Heinemann, says: “Our decision to purchase the GK SOFTWARE AG solution was not just taken because the company was able to provide us with very modern and flexible store software, but also because we are able to obtain all the services related to the software from one source.”
Rainer Gläß, CEO at GK SOFTWARE AG, is also confident that the companies can work together successfully in future: “We are delighted to have acquired another internationally successful retail company in the shape of Gebr. Heinemann to use our software and services. This also underlines the success of our strategy of offering lasting services in addition to our market-leading software. We are convinced that nobody can offer better service for its software than the software producer itself.”
- About Gebr. Heinemann, Limited Partnership:
Gebr. Heinemann was founded in 1879 as a provider for shipping suppliers in the Speicherstadt district of the city. The company is now a modern Hanseatic trading firm, which offers professional solutions to the international travel market. The family-owned enterprise successfully operates 173 Travel Value & Duty Free and 55 Concept & Licence Shops at 47 international airports. Sales at Gebr. Heinemann’s global business operations totaled € 1.7 billion in 2007
