C+F News – Arboretum – January 2020

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Rob Monk pictured with our Technical Support Manager, Matt Chrisostomou

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Rob Monk, of Wentworth Garden Centre, has praised Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system and had this to say about the service:

“As a large, independent garden centre we realised a manual cash register system was no longer fit for purpose and so began to search for a provider of an EPoS system that would fit our strict criteria. We were looking for a company that could provide reliable technology, an easy to use and powerful system that would offer all the data and information we needed, together with a helpful and knowledgeable support team.

“We invited three of the main EPoS providers in the garden centre industry to pitch to us and were blown away by not only how easy Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system was to use, but by the amount of data and information it could provide. The other vendors that we spoke to could, simply, not compete on the number of reports that WinRetail could provide.

We also liked the fact that we could view sales data quickly and easily on our phones and tablets, something the other providers were lacking.

“It was obvious to us that Corby & Fellas is leading the way in garden centre EPoS systems and it was an easy decision to partner with them.

“Since making our decision in early 2019, we have now installed their system in our restaurant, where we have seen an increase in efficiency. We have also realised that our ‘best sellers’ weren’t what we thought they were, which means that we can consider whether or not we should make changes to our existing offers; particularly relevant as we have a new restaurant due to open in 2020.

“We then installed the system in one of our attractions (Wentworth Family Farm), which deals with admissions income and has a small toy shop, it gave us an insight into the information and management data we can expect to receive when we go live across the rest of the site in January 2020.

“Everyone we’ve spoken to at Corby & Fellas has been friendly, helpful and extremely efficient; anyproblems that we encountered have been dealt with swiftly, resolving the few teething problems that we’ve had along the way.

“We look forward to working with Corby & Fellas for many more years to come.”

To find out more about Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system visit www.corbyfellas.com

Rather than sending Christmas Cards this year, Corby + Fellas donated to Norfolk and Waveney Mind Charity, please see the link below

Mind Corby + Fellas – Christmas donation

Testimonial By Rob Monk:

As a large, independent garden centre we realised a manual cash register system was no longer fit for purpose and so began to search for a provider of an EPoS system that would fit our strict criteria. We were looking for a company that could provide reliable technology, an easy to use and powerful system that would offer all the data and information we needed, together with a helpful and knowledgeable support team.

We invited three of the main EPoS providers in the garden centre industry to pitch to us and were blown away by not only how easy Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system was to use, but by the amount of data and information it could provide. The other vendors that we spoke to could, simply, not compete on the number of reports that WinRetail could provide.

We also liked the fact that we could view sales data quickly and easily on our phones and tablets, something the other providers were lacking.

It was obvious to us that Corby & Fellas is leading the way in garden centre EPoS systems and it was an easy decision to partner with them.

Since making our decision in early 2019, we have now installed their system in our restaurant, where we have seen an increase in efficiency. We have also realised that our ‘best sellers’ weren’t what we thought they were, which means that we can consider whether or not we should make changes to our existing offers; particularly relevant as we have a new restaurant due to open in 2020.

We then installed the system in one of our attractions (Wentworth Family Farm), which deals with admissions income and has a small toy shop, it gave us an insight into the information and management data we can expect to receive when we go live across the rest of the site in January 2020.

Everyone we’ve spoken to at Corby & Fellas has been friendly, helpful and extremely efficient; any

problems that we encountered have been dealt with swiftly, resolving the few teething problems that we’ve had along the way.

We look forward to working with Corby & Fellas for many more years to come.

Rob Monk

Wentworth Garden Centre

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Corby + Fellas are delighted to be working with the team at Arboretum – our first European Garden Centre.

Pictured (l-r) Steven Fellas, C+F Head of Projects, Fergal Doyle, Arboretum COO and Matt Chrisostomou, C+F Head of Technical Support

Prior to installing Corby & Fellas WinRetail system in 2015 Klondyke and Strikes Garden Centres didn’t have an EPoS or a Retail Management System. The company hadn’t had enough confidence in the available systems to make the considerable investment required in hardware, software, training and service across our 22 centres in Scotland, Northern England and Wales

However, in 2014 we decided that we would reconsider our position, so we began the process of evaluating systems to see if things had changed to our satisfaction. We invited several vendors to submit proposals; eventually coming up with shortlist of two candidates, both of whom were well established IT companies with experience of supplying systems to garden centres. We asked both organisations to visit our head office in Polmont to give in-depth presentations of their software, to answer questions from our senior management team and to explain how they could satisfy our needs.

Corby & Fellas impressed us on several counts:

1. They had installed systems into garden centres that had no previous experience of running a Retail Management system. This included Hillier Garden Centres, a long-established business with an ethos very similar to our own.
2. C&F design and develop their own software (WinRetail) and are not supplying a third‑party package. This gave us the confidence that they were ‘masters of their own destiny’ and had the flexibility to enhance and modify the system to meet our specific needs.
3. They had an enviable record for providing high quality support, which was borne out by the enquires that we made amongst their existing customers.
4. All their customers, to whom we spoke, were happy that they had made the right decision in selecting C&F and WinRetail.
5. They are a well-established and stable company, having been in existence for 35 years, with a loyal and well-trained work force.

In early 2015 we installed several pilot sites. This was a condition of our contract with C&F; had we not been happy with the pilot sites we had the option of going no further. I’m pleased to say that the pilot sites went well, and we began a full roll-out in the summer of that year.

We have now had the benefit of running WinRetail for over four years now. The system and the service that we receive are both excellent and the introduction of WinRetail has been of great benefit to Klondyke.

Therefore, I have no hesitation in recommending Corby & Fellas as provider of first-class retail systems.

Corby + Fellas are proud and honored to provide our WinRetail System to over 50% of the UK’s Leading Garden Centre Groups