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Lowes Foods licenses ADC's InterScale Enterprise System

System allows the North Carolina based chain to change price, item and label centrally to scales at its 106 stores.

TAMPA, Fla. (October 6, 2003) - ADC, Inc., http://www.ad-c.com, a leading provider of data communication technology to the supermarket industry, said today it has licensed its InterScale scales management system to Lowes Foods, a 106-store supermarket chain based in Winston-Salem, N.C

Lowes Foods becomes the latest chain to invest in InterScale, which uses a company's existing network to transmit future-dated item, price and label information to scales and barcode label printers in all perishables departments. The InterScale system works with all scales regardless of manufacturer and is relied upon by more than 65 supermarket companies and 4,000 individual stores nationwide and in nine countries.

The Lowes Foods system also includes ADC's iScale, a "black box" that manages the in-store scales without the need to implement software on the client's In Store Processor (ISP).

InterScale hosts accurate pricing, ingredient, nutri-fact, label format and graphics data from a single source to supermarket scales and bar code label printers. Production data can be gathered from the scales in the same fashion.

John Keeter, Lowes Foods' technology manager, said the new InterScale system replaces a 10-year-old dial-up scales management system. Frequently, price changes had to be keyed in manually at each individual store due to the antiquated architecture.

According to Steve Loveridge, ADC President, the ability to change prices accurately and quickly can have a major impact on a supermarket company's profitability.

"InterScale allows managers to react quickly to market changes by changing prices at scales throughout the system," Loveridge said. "That helps avoid loss of profit caused by prices that are too low or loss of customers because prices are too high."

Sales and special product promotions can also be managed with the InterScale system, Loveridge said. Item prices can be lowered at a pre-determined time system-wide, then automatically raised once the promotion ends, with in-store personnel never getting involved. When InterScale orders a price change, confirmations are automatically sent back to the host from each scale. If a problem should occur, an e-mail can be automatically dispatched to the help desk.

"Updates are automatic, and that results in a measurable reduction in in-store labor costs, another significant saving," he said.

InterScale has spawned a series of other related ADC products. Besides the iScale servers, products include: NutriGen software, which accurately generates ingredients and nutrition fact label data from recipes; and P-Cubed, a predictive "fortune-telling" software that provides revolutionary fresh-food item inventory and production management.
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About ADC, Inc.:
Founded in 1989, Tampa-based ADC, Inc. (http://www.ad-c.com) specializes in the development of data management and communications solutions for the supermarket industry. The company's InterScale software suite is a global technology leader in the management of supermarket bar code printing scales. Its revolutionary web-centric, embedded iScale server hardware carries InterScale software into the store, enabling a plug-and-go scales management implementation. ADC continues to build on the InterScale synergies, developing fresh item management systems that translate InterScale raw production data into meaningful management information both in the store and at corporate, and by exploring ways to use its web-based, distributed device management architecture with wireless hand-held user interfaces in other application areas.

About Lowe's Foods:

Founded in 1954, Lowes Foods employs 7,800 people and operates 106 stores in North Carolina and Virginia. The company is focused on offering fabulous, fresh foods and great groceries in an environment that is fast and easy to shop. Its customer-service focus has led it to develop innovative services such as Lowes Foods To Go and to offer customers the services of a Corporate Nutritionist. Information about these and other services can be found at the Lowes Foods website, www.lowesfoods.com.