Grocers Turn to Kronos® to Drive Store Productivity

Workforce management technology improves visibility and control; simplifies compliance

LAS VEGAS -- As the grocery industry focuses on navigating through a challenging economy, leading food retailers are using workforce management as a key operational strategy. Advanced workforce management is increasingly being recognized as an effective means of enhancing the customer experience in stores to improve store productivity and drive both top- and bottom-line results.

Leading food retailers around the world are turning to Kronos for Retail from Kronos([R]) Incorporated for fully integrated workforce management solutions. Kronos' offering of software and services enables them to effectively hire and manage their workforce on an enterprise basis while ensuring consistent task execution and customer service across all stores.

Minyard Food Stores Inc., which operates 61 supermarkets in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and boasts a workforce of 5,200, uses Kronos for Retail to balance customer demand and employee satisfaction. "In order to respond effectively to customers, we need satisfied and productive associates," said Mary Marvin, senior vice president of human resources at Minyard Food Stores. "Kronos for Retail enables us to select and hire best-fit candidates as well as create schedules that consistently meet customer demands while balancing our employees' work-life preferences. The result is happier, more productive employees poised to deliver superior customer service."

Thrifty Foods, a stand-alone division of Sobey's Inc., Canada's second-largest food retailer, has been using Kronos for Retail for more than two years. The grocer is now able to achieve consistent store execution across all locations leading to superior customer satisfaction. The workforce management solution also has allowed Thrifty Foods to significantly reduce overtime, simplify compliance, improve employee satisfaction, and increase productivity by freeing its managers from manual processes. "With Kronos for Retail, we have been able to implement a 'Right Staff at the Right Time' philosophy," said Sheryl Bruell, director of frontend operations at Thrifty Foods. "The solution helps us align our staffing with customer demand while simplifying compliance and payroll."

"Thirty years of industry leadership enables Kronos to continue its investment in innovative workforce and talent management solutions that meet the technology and operational needs of the grocery industry," said John Anderson, director of retail marketing at Kronos. "In today's competitive retail environment and difficult economic climate, we fully appreciate the need to focus on store productivity and customer service. Due to Kronos for Retail's ability to help grocers meet both of these goals, we are seeing unprecedented demand for the solution in the marketplace."

Kronos made this announcement from the Food Marketing Institute's (FMI) MARKETECHNICS 2008 being in held in Las Vegas from May 4-7. Kronos is exhibiting in booth #2981.

About Kronos for Retail

Kronos for Retail helps retailers hire the best people and manage them most effectively. This end-to-end suite addresses the challenges of managing the workforce with solutions for budgeting, employee selection and hiring, forecasting and scheduling, time and attendance, absence management, and analytics. Leading retailers from all segments of the industry depend on Kronos to balance the needs of business, customer, and employee. In fact, retailers around the world with more than 80,000 stores and three million employees use Kronos to manage their retail workforce.

About Kronos Incorporated

Kronos Incorporated empowers organizations around the world to effectively manage their workforce. At Kronos, we are experts who are solely focused on delivering software and services that enable organizations to reduce costs, increase productivity, improve employee satisfaction, and ultimately enhance the level of service they provide. Kronos serves customers in more than 60 countries through its network of offices, subsidiaries, and distributors. Widely recognized as a market and thought leader in managing the workforce, Kronos has unrivaled reach with more than 30 million people using a Kronos solution every day. Learn more about Kronos at www.kronos.com.

(c) 2008 Kronos Incorporated. Kronos and the Kronos logo are registered trademarks of Kronos Incorporated or a related company. All other product and company names mentioned are used for identification purposes only and may be trademarks of their respective owners.

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