Southern Co-op has completed the rollout of electronic shelf edge labels (ESLs) across all its stores.
The regional co-operative has embraced the technology due to the environmental benefit of significantly reducing the amount of paper used in stores. It is also estimated that around £220,000 will be saved each year in paper and consumable costs such as printing.
Southern Co-op’s Retail Proposition Manager, Pete Treasure, said: “We trialled the technology with ScotMid Co-op at the very end of 2020 and the feedback from store colleagues was so overwhelmingly positive that we knew we needed to move forward and roll this out across all of our stores.
“The technology has been wholeheartedly embraced by our colleagues who often found the task of replacing the paper labels tedious.
“The best thing is that it enables promotions to change over as soon as a store opens its doors. Plus the larger electronic labels can display legal information such as allergens, Think25 messaging, and home delivery options.”
Lidl and Aldi have also been trialling ESLs in the UK in a bid to improve in-store efficiency, whilst Asda recently started utilising the technology in its trial product refill stores.
