Praise for Corby and Fellas EPOS system  GTN Xtra Promotion

Praise for Corby and Fellas EPOS system
GTN Xtra Promotion

The Corby and Fellas EPOS system has received praise from Mark Winchester, Managing Director of Blackbrooks Garden Centres.

“After investing in a system by one of your competitors and having the unfortunate realisation that things were not working as smoothly as they should, I decided to look for a more efficient system and more reliable technical support,” Mark told Corby and Fellas.

 

“So, after a brief conversation with Alan McCammon and a subsequent presentation from Corby + Fellas, I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and install C&F across the group and I have to say even with the deadlines imposed on your team by myself, the installation process went without a hitch. In fact, I could not have hoped for a better nor smother installation process, so thank you for that.

“Your system has proven to be robust and intuitive enabling our operators to adapt and adopt almost immediately. It is also worth noting the relaxed attitude my till operatives now have due to the confidence they have in their abilities to navigate and rely on their till. This in turn has had a positive effect with the whole team and customers alike.

“I now look forward to making better use of the back-office functionality that your system provides which I have no doubt will trigger cost savings and efficiencies to my business.”

 

For more information visit www.corbyfellas.com

It is with pleasure that I write to endorse the Corby and Fellas EPOS system.

After investing in a system by one of your competitors and having the unfortunate realisation that things were not working as smoothly as they should, I decided to look for a more efficient system and more reliable technical support.  So  after a brief conversation with Alan McCammon and a subsequent presentation from Corby + Fellas, I decided to bite the proverbial bullet and install C&F across the group and I have to say even with the deadlines imposed on your team by myself, the installation process went without a hitch. In fact, I could not have hoped for a better nor smother installation process, so thank you for that.

Your system has proven to be robust and intuitive enabling our operators to adapt and adopt almost immediately. It is also worth noting the relaxed attitude my till operatives now have due to the confidence they have in their abilities to navigate and rely on their till. This in turn has had a positive effect with the whole team and customers alike.

I now look forward to making better use of the back-office functionality that your system provides which I have no doubt will trigger cost savings and efficiencies to my business.

 

Mark Winchester, Managing Director, Blackbrooks Garden Centres

Brian McCrum, senior developer at Corby + Fellas, joined the company in 2009 after previously being employed by Frans Maas (UK) Ltd for about 18 years, so he has almost 30 years experience as a Progress developer.  Brian loves cars and motorbikes and so far has owned 55 cars and about 8 motorbikes, and is currently on the lookout for another Harley Davidson!

 

Jay Turner is a Support Engineer at Corby + Fellas. He only joined the team 6 month ago and has already become a valuable member of the team. Jay is always on hand to support customer queries and deliver excellent customer service. He has built up a vast knowledge of Corby + Fellas systems in the short period he has been here.

Wyevale Garden Centres (WGC) have announced this morning that Heathlands Garden Centre has been sold to Squires Garden Centres

The sale is expected to complete by early August, with WGC continuing to operate the centre until this date.

Anthony Jones, Chief Operating Officer at WGC, said: “We are delighted to have sold Heathlands Centre to a highly respected operator, and that it will continue to be run as a garden centre. I would like to take the opportunity to thank our colleagues at Heathlands who have been so instrumental in making it the brilliant operation it is today and wish them all the best under new ownership.”

Sarah Squire, Squires Chairman, said “We are delighted to welcome Heathlands to Squire’s Garden Centres. As a family business, firmly rooted in south-west London and nearby home counties, Heathlands is an excellent addition to our group. The centre brings us to 16 sites in all. We look forward to working with the team at the centre and really getting to know and understand the local community.”

As a result of this acquisition Squires move to seventh, equal with Hillier, in the ranking of garden centre groups by number of centres.

 

Leading Garden Centre Groups by number of outlets
Jul-19	Jun-18	Group	Outlets	change since June 18
1	2	Dobbies	69	35
2	1	Wyevale Garden Centres	42	-103
3	4	Blue Diamond	30	9
4	8	British Garden Centres	24	14
5	3	Klondyke	22	0
6	4	Notcutts	18	0
 7	7	Hillier	16	4
 7	6	Squires	16	1
9	8	Cherry Lane	14	2
10	8	Hillview	8	-3

 

Welcome to our newest member of the Corby + Fellas family Sam Henden. Sam is from Costessey where he studied at Ormiston Victory Academy and Sixth Form. He was previously working for his family business at Broadland Sports Club and is looking forward to developing his skills and becoming a valuable member of the team here at C+F.

 

Hayes Garden World is a prestigious garden centre based in the beautiful Lake District town of Ambleside. The company has a gardening heritage stretching back over 200 years, having been run by five generations of the Hayes family.

 

It opened on its present site in 1921 when it was known as the Lake District Nurseries, developing to become a garden centre during the 1960s. Today’s garden centre, which attracts over a million visitors a year, also has a significant eCommerce presence, selling an extensive range of high-quality garden furniture.

In 2018 the management team at Hayes decided to upgrade their current EPoS and Retail management software. They evaluated several systems before choosing Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system, which was installed in early 2019.

Since its installation the management team have been delighted with WinRetail’s performance, to the extent that two members of the team have written following testimonials.

The first of which is from Ian Hodgett, who is the Furniture & Barbecues Sales Team Leader:

“Since we installed WinRetail at the end of February 2019 we have been amazed at the difference between our old EPOS system and the new WinRetail system.

When we had our first meeting with the team at Corby & Fellas, at their offices, we discussed our, then current, cloud-based system. We discovered that most of the features that our old system lacked were already there and working in WinRetail. But, WinRetail did not include an order delivery scheduling module, which we needed; however, within a week C&F has produced mocked up version of this for evaluation, which we used to make sure they (C&F) had understood what we were looking for. In April 2019, two months after going live with WinRetail, this new module was released to us, and we have been happily using it since to schedule in all our customer orders for deliveries for both our store and our e-commerce sides of the business.

As an addition to the WinRetail system being installed just before Easter we took delivery of two Dell tablets and two Wi-Fi Chip & Pin terminals for use by our furniture sales team, which they use to process sales orders when serving customers. Thanks to us having these, our furniture sales team can process customer sales much faster and more professionally than was possible with our old system. The tablets give us the ability to process multiple customers at the same time, something we struggled with in the past”.

To summarise: some may say that going from a cloud-based system back to a store-based system is a step backwards, but from what we have experienced from the WinRetail system so far, we can only say that we have taken a massive step forwards and the WinRetail system will streamline our business and save on costs from the get go.”

The second testimonial is from Lyndan Orvis, who is Hayes’ E-Commerce Manager

 “I would just like to say that you and your guys are the amongst the very best and most efficient I have ever worked with. Your effort, efficiency and ability to delivery has left me with one hell of a lot of admiration for you and your team. Very rarely have I seen a partner exceed a fairy-tale promise!

As I said I will document the whole of the system processes and the way we use the various features to help you market the module. Many thanks.”

Polhill Garden Centre is a well-established family owned and run garden centre, located near Sevenoaks in Kent.

Polhill was a rundown nursey when, in 1968, it was bought by father and son duo, Jim and David Novell. Fifty years on it has grown into a thriving garden centre with a shopping village and restaurant, employing 160 staff.

In 2017 the directors of the company decided that they needed to upgrade their EPoS and Retail Management system. After some research they decided that Corby & Fellas’ WinRetail system was the best fit, given C&F’s considerable experience of garden centres and the positive feedback received from existing users.

The new WinRetail system was successfully installed in January 2018, and now, one year on, Mark Novell, director at Polhill Garden Centre, was sufficiently happy with WinRetail’s performance to write the following testimonial:

Feedback from Mark Novell, Director at Polhill Garden Centre Ltd.

I would just like to say thank you to Alan and the team at C+F for our first year with you and the WinRetail system. Due to the software, hardware and outstanding service that you have provided us, our business has greatly benefited.  WinRetail has enabled us to process a greater volume of customers through fewer tills – Easter 2019 being a prime example. The system enhancements, version upgrades and configuration changes that have been made to the system this year have happened seamlessly and nearly all of them have happened during the working day, which has had no effect to the continued running of the business or the system.

Again, I would like to thank you all and look forward to the new enhancements to come this year.

Kind Regards,

Mark Novell

 

We are delighted to announce that we have successfully installed WinRetail at Ansell garden Centre. We are looking forward to working with Mr Raithatha and all of the fantastic team at Ansell Garden Centre

Mr Raithatha is pictured above with Matt Chrisostomou, C+F Head of Technical Support

Old Railway Line Garden Centre Implements Corby & Fellas WinRetail System

Corby & Fellas are delighted to announce that, yet another prestigious garden centre – The Old Railway Line Garden Centre in Brecon, Powys – has installed WinRetail, the powerful, comprehensive and fully integrated Retail Management EPoS, E-commerce and Retail Management System.
The Old Railway Line Garden Centre, which just been voted the GCA’s best ‘Garden Centre in Wales and the West’ for the 7th consecutive year, had some very specific requirements when it came to selecting a new system. So, they sought the advice of several large and experienced garden centres before deciding who would be the ‘best fit’. Having received many positive reports regarding Corby + Fellas, they decided to short list WinRetail.
Alan McCammon, C+F’s Managing Director, who dealt with The Old Railway Line’s brief, explained that: “As well as the ‘standard’ EPOS System requirements, they needed a fully integrated, real-time e-commerce system, with links to Amazon. Furthermore, they were particularly focussed on being able to analyse customer behaviour; a requirement that our CRM/Retail Intelligence module was able to handle by enabling retailers who operate any form of membership, reward or loyalty scheme to track their customer’s purchasing patterns at a very detailed level. It also has the capability to segment by demographic, manage offers, promotions and campaigns, and communicate to members via MailJet”.
Old Railway Line General manager, Huw Lewis, commented: “The time had come to invest in a new EPOS system in order for us to drive various aspects of our business forward for the future. After a great deal of research and several demonstrations we felt that the system from Corby and Fellas was the right choice for our business. Overall, we were very impressed with the system especially the CRM system which will allow us to target our marketing and integrates many systems we previously used into one single operation. We felt that Corby and Fellas were a very forward-thinking company and had the technical knowledge and skills to continually develop a system that will grow with us.”
The team at The Old Railway Line will be taking advantage of WinRetail’s Accounting Interface to Sage 50 Professional, which is one of the many such interfaces that WinRetail offers. They are also keenly anticipating some of the system’s exciting new features, such as:

• A customer facing APP for smartphones and tablets that enables retailers to keep in touch with their customers; with the ability to disseminate news regarding events, special offers, promotions, etc. The APP also allows customers to accurately and securely sign-up for membership of loyalty/rewards schemes via their chosen platform
• An Integrated Events and Bookings module, which operates in in real-time and is available both online and in-store using an EPoS terminal.
• Restaurant Table Service APP with integrated card payments facility
• A tablet based version of the EPOS module, which can be linked to a wireless Chip & PIN terminal and printer. Ideal for handling furniture sales, for mobile order taking, etc.
• Farm Shop scales interface (Bizerba), which handles any combination of promotions for weighed and measured items.
• Home Delivery Scheduling system that allows the delivery of customer orders to be allocated by date, time and vehicle type, using a delivery postcode, product weight and product dimensions.