Tira Hipermercado, an impressive departmental store recently opened its doors to expectant customers in the southern Angolan town of Ondjiva (capital of Cunene Province). The store was opened, amidst great festivities, by the governor of the Cunene Province and the mayor of Ondjiva. Arch Retail Systems, a market leader in southern Africa with integrated retail management solutions, is the technology partner of choice in the store.

A lengthy project preceded the go-live, where team members from both parties worked closely together to address the daily challenges in the planning phase. Logistics in general was a major challenge, in the building phase of the store, but also in the later stages when equipment and stock were delivered. The launch of the store was postponed on a number of occasions due to the mentioned practical problems.

This landmark store, in retail terms, is relatively large (8,000+ m² of trading space), offering the customer a number of departments such as groceries, wholesale, liquor, clothing, electronics, hardware, furniture, pharmacy, pets section and motorcycles. The wide spread of merchandise is a real benefit for the locals and offers a one-stop shopping experience.

The integrated nature of Arch Retail ensures efficient management of the diverse departments, consolidating it into central management intelligence, essential for the success and growth of the store. Arch is operational on 22 points in the store, with a Portuguese customer interface at point of sale. In addition to this, the store is also linked to their DC in Midrand, South Africa, where Arch facilitates electronic ordering and invoicing between the store and DC. Product capturing, price maintenance and promotional campaigns are managed at the DC and sent electronically down to the store.

Tira is the third group in Angola, after Food Lovers Market and Webcor (franchise holders for establishing Spar stores in Angola) to implement Arch Retail Systems as their integrated retail solution of choice. David Geldenhuys, marketing executive of Arch Retail, commented as follows: "Establishing and growing the business in Angola have been challenging to say the least, but most rewarding now that we have a number of retail partners with aggressive growth plans".