“AURES was recommended to Retail & Sports by another EPOS supplier. We were impressed by the build quality, price point and the 3 year on site warranty. We quickly decided to use the YUNO as our preferred POS unit.”
Richard Waltham, Director
Top of the Game
Sports retail is a booming market in the UK, bucking the trends witnessed in other retail sectors to record strong, consistent growth throughout the post-credit crunch economic slowdown.
Buoyed by high consumer demand for sportswear in particular, top global brands such as Adidas and Nike, along with leading outlets such as Sports Direct, have established a dominant presence in retail.
With conditions in their favour, the past decade has also been a boom time for branded sports club merchandise. Powered by astronomical TV revenues and massive global interest, brand values of leading English Premier League (EPL) football clubs have increased by three, four or even five fold in the past five years.
And it isn’t just the biggest players who are benefitting. Throughout English professional football, and other sports like rugby union, rugby league and cricket, retail has become an increasingly important source of revenue for most professional clubs.
Retail & Sports Systems has been servicing this burgeoning market since 2009. The Nottingham-based company specialises in supplying point of sale solutions to sports clubs.
“We launched our first live system at Sheffield United in July 2010,” said Director Richard Waltham. “This successful installation was swiftly followed by St. Helens RLFC in August 2010.
“Our system is now in use at over 30 sites, including 19 football clubs & three rugby clubs, including EPL teams West Ham United, Swansea City and Watford FC.”
Led by a team of directors with world class experience at the very highest levels in multi-channel retail, ecommerce, professional football and sportswear, Retail & Sports Systems has established itself as a leading player supplying EPOS systems to sports stadia and club retail outlets.
Richard said: “The portfolios of our current directors include the likes of George Clothing, Per Una, Fortnum and Mason, Harrods and more; ecommerce sites such as wiggle.co.uk and Kitbag.com; numerous football clubs such as Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Liverpool and Everton plus many others; and experience working for global sporting brands like Nike, Adidas and Puma UK.
“Although we have a strong presence in the sports industry, we have also developed systems for other channels such as fast food & the charity sector.”
AURES Partnership
Retail & Sports Systems provides a full end-to-end point of sale service to sports clubs, stadiums and other clients. As well as hardware and software installations, it offers clients a full range of support, training and information services. Its software platforms are web-based and offer full integration between on-site retail, ecommerce, stock control, purchase ordering and logistics. It also includes a full suite of analytics and reporting tools.
In 2015, Retail & Sports entered into an agreement with AURES to supply in-store EPOS terminals. “AURES was recommended to us by another EPOS supplier,” said Richard. “We were impressed by the build quality, price point and the 3 year on-site warranty. We quickly decided to use the YUNO as our preferred POS unit.”
In the space of just a couple of years, the partnership has flourished. Retail & Sports has to date installed 152 YUNO units at 16 sites, mainly in the retail shops at EPL and Football League club stadiums. This number includes 50 YUNO terminals at West Ham United alone, following the club’s historic move to the London Stadium, previously the centre stage for the 2012 Olympics.
Steve Hanrahan, business development manager at AURES, described the partnership with Retail & Sports as highly successful. “Retail & Sports is a great company to work with,” he said. “They have a really strong niche, which is great from our perspective as it gives us a window into a specialised market, and they are extremely well respected in the sports retail industry. Overall, they are a loyal and consistent partner and we are delighted to be working with them.
YUNO in Action
One of the most popular EPOS terminals in the AURES range, YUNO is an adaptable high performance solution. With a stylish, compact ergonomic design and robust construction, it is built to provide great value as a long-term investment.
“Clients love it because it looks great and is reliable,” said Richard.
Available with both wall and pole-mounted VESA screen fixing options or as a touchscreen solution, Retail & Sports has found the flexibility of YUNO very beneficial in adding value to sports club installations.
“By supplying YUNO with a customer-facing screen, we have been able to increase sales of personalised shirts by displaying the back of the shirt to the customer,” said Richard. “The ability to run adverts on the tills also allows an additional income stream.”
Ahead of the 2017-18 football season, Retail & Sports extended its partnership with Huddersfield Town in preparation for the club’s first season in the EPL. To capitalise on the buzz and excitement around the club, a new store was opened at its John Smith’s Stadium home ground, fitted with four YUNO terminals.
At the same time, Retail & Sports also installed three YUNO terminals at the club’s PPG Canalside Training Ground, as part of the first hospitality system it has built for a sports club. Making full use of the flexibility the YUNO offers, Retail & Sports was able to link the terminals to the same back office software used for the club’s retail outlets, meaning season cards can be captured at the club bar, and loyalty cash points awarded and redeemed through an integration with Sports Alliance.
About Retail & Sports Systems
Retail & Sports Systems was founded in 2009. It provides end-to-end omni-channel merchandise management solutions with EPOS, online shop, warehousing with carrier integration, wholesale, plus hardware installation and service support. The company specialises in the sports retail sector, but also has a presence in hospitality, fast food, ecommerce and charity retail.
Overall, it has systems installed at 30 sites, including 19 EPL and Football League clubs, plus three professional rugby clubs.
Retail & Sports installations offer end users full content control, with system architectures designed for ease of use. It offers flexible fixed payment terms, and 7 day helpdesk support throughout a contract period.
Contact
Retail & Sports Systems
Unit 5 – Cabourn House – Station Street
Bingham – Nottingham – NG13 8AQ
Tel: 0845 258 1088
Web: www.retailsportssystems.co.uk