Ace Hardware Increases Store Opening Efficiency with Gladson QuickSet™ Tools

Business Wire, May 12, 2008

LISLE, Ill. -- Ace Hardware has reduced the time and cost of new and remodeled store openings by using Gladson Interactive's QuickSet[TM] Image Reset Strips and Image Back Tags in some 250 stores over the past four years.

With over 20,000 items in the average Ace store, setting up a new location can take as much as seven weeks, and the most time-consuming and hard-to-stock sections are those that hold the 7,000 to 10,000 peggable products carried by a typical store. By using the Gladson Image Back Tags, which show the desired row and column number, the hardware retailer has eliminated the need to count peg holes and greatly reduced incorrect peg sets.

"Gladson provides a great tool that has assisted us in reaching our growth strategy goals for the past four years," said Jodie Weinshenker, Ace category management specialist. "The Gladson QuickSet[TM] product has helped with the opening of our new stores and saved us time and money."

The QuickSet[TM] Image Reset Strips and Image Back Tags feature a color photo of the product and are pre-cut and sorted in the order determined by the store's planogram file. At a recent new store opening in suburban Chicago, Ace store personnel said the QuickSet[TM] products allowed them to set up the store in about half the time it normally takes.

In addition to improving store set-up, QuickSet[TM] Image Reset Strips and Image Back Tags make re-stocking easier, help maintain planogram integrity, reduce out-of-stocks and, importantly, let the consumer know that the product is carried even if temporarily out-of-stock. Moreover, the inclusion of a product photo overcomes the language barrier for both shoppers and store employees.

"In the four years that we've been working with Ace Hardware, we have produced over 2 million QuickSet[TM] Image Back Tags for them," said Gladson president and chief executive officer Mark Shapiro. "Like many of our retail customers, Ace is using our Image Merchandising Solutions to get their new and remodeled stores set quickly, correctly and efficiently."

About Gladson Interactive

Gladson Interactive (www.gladson.com), headquartered in Lisle, Ill., is a leading provider of category management services to consumer goods manufacturers, retailers, wholesalers and brokers. The company's core focus is on collecting primary information and package images of consumer products for a wide range of uses, including shelf space management, category management, advertising and e-applications such as online information and shopping. The company also provides data analysis, consulting, in-store merchandising solutions that support successful planogram implementation as well as store design services.