Kusmi Tea is modernising its EPOS equipment with AURES’ Sango point-of-sale terminals

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Kusmi Tea is modernising its EPOS equipment with AURES’ Sango point-of-sale terminals.

Kusmi Tea, a fashionable premium tea chain in France and throughout the world, is continuing to grow robustly. The brand is currently distributed in over 30 countries and is affirming its international expansion by opening new stores every year.

It has once again turned to AURES to upgrade the POS equipment in the 52 stores trading under its own name, rolling out around 100 Sango Packs (including point-of-sale terminal and associated ODP 333 receipt printer).

This hardware runs using the Cegid Group's Yourcegid Retail software.

"The Kusmi Tea saga began in Russia in 1867," explains Isabelle Cauret, the chain's Marketing and Communications Director. "Pavel Michailovitch Kousmichoff, who started out as a delivery boy at a tea store in Saint Petersburg, opened his own store. He invented unique tea recipes for his children, including Bouquet of Flowers N° 108, which became the tsar's tea."

In 1907, his son opened a branch in London. At the height of the company's popularity during the inter-war period, offices were opened in New York, Hamburg, Constantinople and Berlin.

In 2003, Kousmichoff was bought out by Sylvain Orebi, CEO of the family owned Orientis Group, which specialises in commodities trading. Orientis has carried on Kousmichoff's tradition while also providing the boost it needed to expand onto and influence the international market.

"Kusmi Tea has changed a lot," adds Cauret. "We wanted to quickly distinguish ourselves from the conventional rules of high-end tea in order to ride the wave of the most avant-garde trends. Detox and well-being teas emerged quickly, with evocatively named products such as Sweet Love, Be Cool, Boost, Euphoria, Detox and BB Detox.

The layout and decor of our own-name distribution channels – 42 stores in France and just over a dozen abroad – is also a key factor in our point-of-sale marketing," she adds. "We strive to convey an exclusive brand identity and strong visuals, in keeping with our products' originality.

Our stores' till area is very important and must blend perfectly with Kusmi's style and ambience. The light, elegant contemporary design of AURES' Sango terminals is an ideal match for the spirit of our retail premises."

"We'd already been won over by AURES' previous EPOS hardware, which we began rolling out in our stores in 2010," says Bruno Contrepoids, the IT Systems Director.

"It was therefore a natural choice to renew our trust in AURES and install its new Sango terminals. Their premium look matches to perfection the image and contemporary style of our stores: exceptional design and top-of-the-range finishes, cables routed through the EPOS terminal base (meaning that none of them are visible), and last but not least the associated receipt printer, scanner and cash drawer supplied by AURES. These go perfectly with and can be integrated into our point-of-sale units and areas.

Over and above the benefits of this hardware's aesthetics, ergonomics and ability to be integrated, we also appreciate the stability, reliability and robustness of Sango terminals. AURES has selected high-quality components and materials, and its terminals are well manufactured and really easy to install; the touchscreen is also very resistant. The equipment is powered by an Ivy Bridge i3 processor, which runs all our POS operations smoothly."

As Contrepoids explains, another plus point is the terminals' Cegid Retail certification: this gives the best guarantee that the front office program and all associated peripherals function correctly.

"We're also very pleased with AURES' after-sales service," he adds.

"If we need anything, we know that an efficient, attentive after-sales service is on hand. In the same way, we're very satisfied with AURES' ability to preconfigure and individually tailor our terminals when installing them."

AURES' hardware underwent many in-house tests before it was chosen by and rolled-out at Kusmi Tea: disk-image deployment tests, software and peripheral compatibility tests, and unintentional hard reboot tests. These all gave satisfactory results.

Check-out operators were also consulted and trained to use this new hardware: the EPOS points' ergonomics were thus tested in real-life situations (options for EPOS terminal height adjustment, checking touchscreen tilt angle, getting the hang of the software, simplified access and the option for on-site maintenance by non-technical staff, etc.).

"We're continuing to open stores throughout the world – both in Europe and further afield – at a steady pace," concludes Contrepoids.

"AURES' international presence is further proof of its quality and reliability anywhere in the world. It ensures we have a uniform, lasting set of IT equipment with long-term consistency. This reflects the image of our stores in the various countries where we're expanding."

In Brief

• over 50 Kusmi Tea stores to be equipped with AURES hardware
• about 100 operational Sango Packs
  (EPOS terminals with customer display, associated ODP 333 thermal printer, cash drawer and scanner)
• Ivy Bridge i3 321 7 U fanless processor
• 4 GB memory
• 64 GB SSD
• Multi-touch, projected, capacitive touchscreen (PCAP)
• 3-year return-to-factory warranty