FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Lowes Foods implements ADC's P-Cubed System

Phase 1 implementation allows the North Carolina based chain to efficiently count physical inventory at its 106 stores.

TAMPA, Fla. (February 23, 2004) - ADC, Inc., http://www.ad-c.com, a leading provider of data communication technology to the supermarket industry, said today it has licensed its P-Cubed fresh item 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 P-Cubed, which uses wireless handheld web-browser scanners in the store perishable departments to manage fresh item inventory and production, communicating directly with a web server at the corporate HQ over the company's intranet. This thin-client implementation avoids the installation and maintenance of per-store software and provides a centralized repository of fresh item inventory data for cross-store performance and shrink analysis. The P-Cubed system works with all graphical web-browser enabled hand held terminals, PC's and scales regardless of manufacturer.

The Lowes Foods system also includes ADC's Real Time Scan Repository (RTSR) module that continually monitors the POS transactions in the store, recording all inventory movements in P-Cubed's central SQL database. P-Cubed uses this transactional data alongside scale production totals and handheld adjustments to keep perpetual inventory of in-store fresh items.

ADC's InterScale system gathers production data from the in-store network of scales and label printers into the central P-Cubed database in a similar fashion to RTSR.

John Jarvis, the Lowes Foods' Vice President managing the P-Cubed project, said the P-Cubed phase 1 Physical Inventory implementation replaces a manual forms-based system. P-Cubed provides inventory valuation at the per-store item level, which is a level of accuracy hereto unknown at Lowes. Previously, monthly inventory counts only revealed a department-level inventory valuation which was inadequate for decision support. P-Cubed not only provides more accurate inventory data but collects it far faster and more efficiently than previous manual methods. Simply by speeding up the time taken to check physical inventory has resulted in significant labor savings at Lowes Foods. Even though P-Cubed has a design focus on the fresh item departments in the supermarket, Lowes Foods are also using P-Cubed to count physical inventory in all store departments, including center-store.

"The system is performing well", said Jarvis. "We have achieved remarkably good response times from running 250 handhelds across our stores all counting inventory concurrently" he said. "This level of scalability, along with the ease of installation, is what attracted us to the thin-client web-centric architecture".

According to Steve Loveridge, ADC President, the ability for a supermarket to know what it has in stock in terms of fresh items in the stores can have a major impact on a supermarket company's profitability.

"P-Cubed allows managers and buyers to react quickly to market changes by warning of impending fresh item stock-outs and overstocks," Loveridge said. "That helps avoid loss of profit caused by missed sales from running out of an item or throwaways because the item reached its perishable shelf life."

Markdowns and transfers can also be managed with the P-Cubed system, Loveridge said. Fresh item package prices can be lowered while still in the case by printing a replacement bar-coded label from a portable printer connected to the handheld scanner. The same hand held scanner can also be used to move inventory into another department, such as transferring sandwich ingredients from the Deli to the Kitchen. When P-Cubed marks down a price or transfers inventory, such inventory movements are instantly visible at the corporate location since each thin-client in-store browser screen is communicating directly with the central web server and database over the wide area TCP/IP network.

"Inventory movements are automatically tracked from POS and scales, and that results in a measurable reduction in in-store labor costs, another significant saving," he said.

The initial P-Cubed implementations have spawned a series of other related P-Cubed modules. Besides the Real Time Scan Repository for centrally capturing POS transactions, Physical and Perpetual inventory modules are: a Forecasting module for predicting fresh item production requirements, a Computer Aided Ordering module for generating orders to fulfill forecast fresh item demand, and a Receiving module for uniquely capturing fresh item details at point of receipt, including serialization and country of origin/traceability details.

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 web-centric architecture synergy's, developing the P-Cubed fresh item management system that translates 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 handheld user interfaces in other application areas.

About Lowes Foods:

Founded in 1954, Lowes Foods employs 8,300 people and operates 107 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 web site, www.lowesfoods.com.

©2004 ADC, Inc. All rights reserved.