Dunelm is one of the most successful home furnishings retailers in the UK and is enjoying rapid growth. Founded over 25 years ago in Leicester by Bill and Jean Adderley, in more recent years, Dunelm has created a successful superstore format trading in out of town locations. With a portfolio of 90 stores spread across the UK and a turnover in excess of £350million and over 5,000 employees, Dunelm Mill has quickly risen to become one of the UK's leading home furnishing retailers.
Dunelm Mill has recently rolled out Skorpio™ mobile computers across some of its stores. Over 500 Skorpio™ mobile computers have been supplied to Dunelm Mill by Datalogic Partner Pen Mobile Solutions, an independent company with considerable experience in the Auto ID sector.
The mobile computers are used in the fabric department - after the customer has selected the fabric they want to purchase, an assistant scans a bar code menu to identify the brand and type using the Skorpio™'s integrated bar code laser scanner. After the fabric has been measured, the assistant then keys in the length using the Skorpio™'s compact alphanumeric keypad. A signal is sent automatically using Dunelm Mill's in-store WLAN infrastructure to a printer which generates two bar code labels. One is applied to the measured fabric so that the customer can take their purchase to the checkout, whilst the other is applied to the remaining fabric roll. The latter denotes how much material is left on the roll and is used later for stocktaking.
The Skorpio™ was chosen due to its compact size and price/performance. A number of alternative devices were tested. Norman Unsworth, Special Project's Manager at Dunelm Mill comments: "The Skorpios™ have been extremely reliable and very easy for us to install. We particularly appreciate the pre-sales technical support Datalogic provided, which enabled us to rapidly build our application on the Skorpios™. Datalogic's locked web browser tool further enhances the application as it prevents users from exiting our application and changing any configurations on the mobile computer".
The Skorpios™ have replaced some of the older, terminals which were beginning to become unreliable and uneconomic. "The Skorpios™ have been a lot easier to support. We can resolve most issues ourselves whereas the previous older devices had to be sent back to the repair centre for even the most basic of changes".
Datalogic ADC Regional Director for UK and Ireland, Colin Pike, comments: "Despite very difficult trading conditions out there, most progressive retailers are continuing to invest in mobile devices. This technology has long proven to be a key element in improving the efficiency of retail stores automation".
Customer Dunelm Mill
Industry Retail - Fabrics & Soft furnishings
Application Assisted Sales
Country UK
Datalogic Solution Retail In-store
Datalogic Product Skorpio™
Datalogic Partner Pen Mobile
