ICA ETTAN SUNDSVALL

December 16, 2020

Innovative ica store triples revenue

Since taking over the ICA Ettan store in Sundsvall (Sweden) in 2016, ICA grocer Jan Sikström has almost tripled the store’s turnover from 15 million to 40 million SEK. Today, the store has 15 employees and approximately 5,000 different products on the shelves. In 2016, an extensive renovation of the store was carried out, which also introduced a wider range of organic products – and the positive development continues. One of the more recent initiatives is the introduction of Breece’s electronic shelf labels from Delfi Technologies, saving both time and money in the store.

At the end of 2018, Jan Sikström installed Breece’s electronic shelf labels from Delfi, after using paper labels and trying other systems on the market. Breece provides great flexibility and is a system that is very easy to handle when it comes to linking displays to products, getting automatic price updates, getting multi-piece information and product information directly on the shelf edge.

– We are constantly looking at new initiatives so that we can constantly develop our business. Therefore, we have also implemented electronic shelf labels from Delfi Technologies, which is an incredible help in everyday life. From previously spending a few days a week preparing promotions, multi-piece prices, product and price changes, we now only spend a few minutes a week on this and everything runs automatically,” says grocer Jan Sikström.

"We chose to go with the Breece solution from Delfi because it is incredibly easy to work with. There is enormous flexibility and at the same time unlimited possibilities in terms of design and expression on the display."

Jan Sikström, merchant at ICA Ettan

TIME-SAVING SOLUTION WITH UNLIMITED POSSIBILITIES

– Now we can instead use the freed-up time for more promotional activities and customer service in the store, where we have especially improved our fruit and vegetable department. The Breece Mobile solution makes us more mobile, as we can link products to associated displays, move products, etc. directly at the shelf without having to sit in the office, says grocer Jan Sikström.

ICA Ettan looked at several suppliers before replacing an existing ESL solution. They went with Breece from Delfi Technologies, which according to Jan Sikström offered a much more user-friendly and technically superior system compared to other solutions on the market. The system is incredibly easy to install, as the communication unit (antenna) can be connected directly to the store’s existing ICA network. The antenna uses radio technology on its own frequency, around 868 MHz, and has nothing to do with regular WiFi, making the solution incredibly flexible to install in different types of environments. One of the requirements was that the solution and the company had to be approved by ICA IMS, which Breece and Delfi Technologies are.

– We chose to go with the Breece solution from Delfi based on the fact that it is incredibly easy to work with the solution. There is enormous flexibility and at the same time unlimited possibilities in terms of design and expression on the display. In addition, it is a future-proof solution that is constantly evolving with new functionality,” says Jan Sikström.

Today, the Breece solution is installed locally in the store, called Breece On-Premises. It is also possible to choose a Breece Cloud solution, where no software or hardware is required in the store, but everything is in the cloud. Moving the solution to the cloud and further increasing flexibility, where for example the store can use a regular mobile phone to handle the solution at the shelf, is one of the next planned initiatives for ICA Ettan.

ICA Gruppen, one of the Nordic region’s largest grocery retailers, has innovation high on its agenda. ICA Ettan in Granloholm is no exception – on the contrary, the local ICA Nära store is leading the way when it comes to implementing improvements in all parts of the business.

ABOUT ICA

With around 1,300 stores and a market share of approximately 36 percent, ICA Sweden is the leading grocery store in Sweden. The company is run together with free ICA retailers, who each own and operate their own store and can thus meet customers through locally adapted concepts and offers.