Long-term benefits of Cash Management

HERE IS THE STORY ABOUT HOW NORGESGRUPPEN CHANGED THE WAY THEY HANDLE CASH

NorgesGruppen is one of Norway’s largest retailing businesses. The group’s core business is grocery retailing and wholesaling. Through its chains, the group holds a market share of 39.9% of the grocery market. A total of 1,768 grocery stores and 800 kiosks are affiliated to NorgesGruppen, which has more than 38,000 employees. NorgesGruppen dates back to 1866.

The Challenge

Since 2003 The NorgesGruppen had been opting for a cash management solution controlled by a central system that gives management a detailed insight into the cash position as well as the daily revenue in all NorgesGruppen stores.

“We were looking for an easier way to streamline our cash handling and to simultaneously upgrade our cash security”, says Kurt Thomassen, security officer of the Norwegian grocery chain Meny Ultra.

“The goal was initially to develop a retail system that made us increasingly able to get a solid and reality-based cash flow in all our stores, and to create a safe and secure working environment for our employees”, says Thomassen.

The Solution

NorgesGruppen chose StrongPoint’s cash management solution called CashGuard. CashGuard is the leading cash management solution in the retail industry.

The idea behind CashGuard’s closed cash handling solution is to automate the whole cash handling process, from the point of sale to cash-in-transit (CIT) pick-up. CashGuard does the counting, dispensing of change, tracking, reporting and storage of cash. By automating the cash handling process, human errors are a thing of the past. And by making the systems tamper-proof, equipping them with ink-dyeing and validation technology, closed cash management system increases security for both customers and retailers.

Since neither the manager nor the staff is occupied with handling the money, they can focus on running the retail business and on their customers. They also don’t have to stay after closing the stores to count the cash. It’s done automatically – and always correctly.

The Result

“I dare to say that we succeeded with our goal. Dealing with the money runs better today. Today everything works better in the checkout lane. It is faster, it is easier to manage cash, and the cash management system does the counting and settlements very precisely,” says Thomassen.

“As the cash management system stands today, the gains are far more extensive than we first thought”, adds Thomassen.

He continues:
“A number of the improvements that CashGuard brought us appear directly on the bottom line. Through stability, predictability and usability our grocery stores lowered staffing needs and thereby cut payroll expenses. We also spend less time and money on what usually comes with handling cash; circulation, recordkeeping and counting money. The benefits with CashGuard are numerous. 

Certainly we had some cultural challenges to begin with, not all changes are applauded by all of our employees in our grocery stores, but now all employees seem to appreciate the flexibility, safety and efficiency CashGuard is paving the way for.”

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