ELECTRONIC COUPON CLEARING FROM CATALINA GOES ON-LINE

MARC MILLSTEIN

CHICAGO -- In a strong sign that a more efficient system for clearing coupons could soon begin to take hold in the industry, four stores will go on-line with an electronic clearing program next week.

The system, from Catalina Electronic Clearing Services, St. Petersburg, Fla., will be fully operational in four Dick's Supermarkets stores beginning the week of May 23.

The system is believed to be the first to handle all aspects of the coupon-clearing process electronically, from scanning and verifying critical coupon information and transmitting it to manufacturers and retailers to guaranteeing swifter retailer payment.

If successful, it could fully eliminate the need to count and verify coupons by hand, as is traditionally done today, and should spell the end of the misredemption, malredemption and charge-back problems that plague the industry.

The four-store introduction is the first stage in a 30-store rollout of the system expected to be completed by July. By late fall, the scanner-generated clearing system could be in as many as 300 supermarkets, said Daniel Granger, president and chief executive officer, CECS. Granger disclosed details of the program's expansion in an interview with SN at the Food Marketing Institute's annual convention here.

The system has been on-line in a single Safeway store in Eugene, Ore., for just under two months, and it will soon be operational in a much larger number of supermarkets in 12 chains. Among them are two stores each in Safeway's eastern and Portland divisions and in Lucky Stores' northern and southern divisions. It will also be introduced in stores at Dominick's Finer Foods, Giant Food, Kroger, Pathmark, Shoppers Food Warehouse and ShopRite.

"We should be in 200 to 300 stores by the fall. We are on target with our projections thus far, so I think that those numbers are accurate. I may even be being a little conservative," Granger said.

According to Granger, scanned coupon data for the Monday through Sunday time period will be gathered each week, with retailers guaranteed payment by Tuesday. "So there is a two- to eight-day payment period. That and the accuracy are key (retailer) benefits of the program," he said.

"For manufacturers, they will get accurate and fast validation of coupon information and family code data. Information is the future. Charge backs, deductions [and other of those types of problems] should go away. That's what's driving the manufacturer participation in this."