IT move in store for new Tesco shops

Convenience stores Europa, Harts and Cullens will migrate to Tesco's standard IT infrastructure on completion of the supermarket giant's £53.7m acquisition of Adminstore.

The 45 London-based stores will be rebranded as Tesco Express, with electronic point of sale software and supply chain systems converting to Tesco's IT standards.

By standardising IT infrastructure in the new stores Tesco hopes to make cost savings in IT and supply chain management, as well as improve stock delivery systems.

The new stores are also expected to use Tesco's Microsoft .Net architecture, which the supermarket adopted in February 2002 to speed deployment of new business applications over the web to its 506 stores and offices.

Preferred merchandising, supply chain, logistics and in-store software from G-Log, Retek and Siemens is likely to be adopted, and the new stores will also be included in Tesco's radio frequency identification (RFID) trials.

"Where we're trialling RFID already, the same will apply to the new stores," said a Tesco spokesman.

"However, much of the goods in Cullens and Harts are low cost and unlikely to be tagged."

Last year Tesco migrated more than 100 One Stop and Day & Nite stores to the Tesco Express IT format following its acquisition of T&S Stores.

Tesco said it was confident that its acquisition of Adminstore, a small player in the convenience store market, would get regulatory clearance.