COMPANY FORMED FOR INDEPENDENTS

MICHAEL GARRY

DALLAS -- In an unusual move aimed at addressing the technology needs of independent retailers, longtime partners Fujitsu Transaction Solutions, based here, and Retalix, with U.S. headquarters here, announced last week that they have formed StoreNext Retail Technologies, effective immediately.

The new company, owned equally by Fujitsu and Retalix, will target independent grocers and their wholesalers in North America. That will allow the co-owners, which have had a working partnership for 20 years, to focus exclusively on larger chains.

Bill Bishop, president of Willard Bishop Consulting, Chicago, said in a statement that StoreNext "will allow smaller retailers the opportunity to realize the same efficiencies that previously were available only to the larger chains."

StoreNext, also based here, will offer Fujitsu point-of-sale hardware and services, Retalix POS, back-office and mobile computing software, and Retalix applications for managing stores and chains via the Internet.

StoreNext will also offer products not heretofore marketed by Fujitsu or Retalix to independents, including fuel management; an interface to self-checkout systems marketed by NCR and Productivity Solutions Inc.; electronic shelf labels from Israel-based Eldat; and "connected services" that will provide a Web-based link to dealers offering equipment maintenance and software distribution services, according to Bruce Minale, general manager of StoreNext.

Minale said that StoreNext's connected services program will "drive costs down for dealers and end-users." The maintenance part of connected services will become available at the end of the year, he said.

Minale, formerly Fujitsu's vice president of retail indirect sales, is one of several executives from the two parent companies who are helping to direct StoreNext. Tony van Seventer, formerly Fujitsu's director of supermarket systems, joins the new company as head of marketing and product strategy. Dror Ben-David, who previously managed Internet and Web-based initiatives for Retalix, has been named head of connected services for StoreNext.

In addition, Austen Mulinder, president and CEO of Fujitsu, and Barry Shaked, president and CEO of Retalix, will serve as chairman and CEO, respectively, of StoreNext, while continuing in their current duties.

The reaction from the trade appears to be that StoreNext will simplify the process of buying technology for independents and wholesalers. "This provides us with a common marketing and product development organization" and a "common vision for offering world-class products to independents," said Mike Brown, general manager of retail technology for Unified Western Grocers, Los Angeles. He said the new company draws on the marketing skills of Fujitsu and the development ability of Retalix. For wholesalers like Brown, StoreNext especially clarifies the direction of Retalix, whose acquisitions of Bass and RCS had created some confusion in the market, he said.

In another move designed to help independents, NCR, Atlanta, announced last week that it was introducing ScanMaster 2.0, an enhanced version of the product with "big chain benefits" for smaller retailers.

According to a statement, Maysville (N.C.) IGA Foodliner is one of the first stores to install ScanMaster 2.0.