Tesco Invests RM1.5 Million (US$479, 000) in SAS® Solution for Malaysia

Hypermart makes technological investment to gain marketing advantage with business intelligence (BI) 

KUALA LUMPUR  (Apr. 29, 2008)  –  Tesco Stores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, a joint venture with Sime Darby Berhad is investing RM1.5 million (US$479, 000), over a three -year period to deploy SAS® Business Intelligence (BI) technology into its business operations - with key focus to boost the hypermart’s marketing functionality.

Tesco Stores (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd, formed on 29 November 2001, sealed its partnership with SAS Malaysia at a closed-door signing ceremony at SAS’ office at Plaza Sentral, Kuala Lumpur.

The investment in SAS is in tandem with the strategy to improve Tesco’s market share in the competitive hypermart sector, where Tesco is targeting to open 11 new stores in 2008.

Paul Morris, the Marketing Director of Tesco Stores (Malaysia) explains that the key objective of leveraging SAS solution is to to understand customers better and to provide a reporting and analytical solution that centralizes all customer, sales and transaction data.

"Tesco Malaysia has a mountain of data that it can’t analyze quick enough to support the store’s business decisions. The decision to go with SAS is in line with the Tesco Group Scale program as SAS collaboration with Tesco Korea and Tesco UK has also generated proven results. We have no doubts on picking SAS as the technology solution to support Tesco Malaysia’s fast expanding business."

He shares that with SAS, Tesco expects to drastically reduce its time and effort needed to garner the relevant reports, following from the Tesco ClubCard initiative which was officially launched in August 2007.

For Richer Customer Experience 

"Quicker analysis of the data will allow us to understand our customers better than any of our competitors - in order to offer them a more tailored shopping experience at each of our outlets."

"Using SAS, Tesco will be able to glean the right information to gain predictive insights that will be extremely beneficial for our marketing team to improve the shopping trip for customers, particularly trade planning, price and range," says Morris.

Jimmy Cheah, Managing Director of SAS Malaysia says, "The SAS solution will help Tesco hasten its process to make crucial operational decisions, and directly contribute to increased revenues by providing the right information to target the right customer through the right channels."

The SAS BI Server for Marketing Analysis and Reporting will provide Tesco with deeper insight into its products and customers via analysis on sales categories, customers, promotions and buying behavior that can help enable it continue to enhance the level of

customer satisfaction and spur further growth.

"Armed with the technology that gives them the power to know, Tesco will be able to grab a bigger piece of pie from the hypermart sector while at the same time reducing their direct marketing costs," concludes Cheah.

About Tesco

Tesco Stores (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. was established on 29 November 2001, as a strategic alliance with local conglomerate, Sime Darby Berhad of which the latter holds 30 percent of the total shares.

Following the official approval from the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Tesco Stores (M) Sdn Bhd officially took over the Makro Malaysia business as of 24 January 2007.The terms of the acquisition includes all eight Makro stores in Shah Alam, Selayang, Johor Baru, Ipoh, Seberang Prai, Seremban, Cheras and Penang as well as all staff including those at Head office. Almost all Makro stores have been converted to a new format called Tesco Extra. Tesco Extra serves both small business customers as well as normal consumers.

Currently, Tesco Malaysia employs more than 7,900 employees and operates 20 stores (including the six former Makro stores now known as Tesco Extra) throughout peninsular Malaysia and carries more than 2,066 of its own brands of products ranging from food to non-food items. There are three ranges of Tesco-branded products: Tesco Value range, Tesco Choice range and Tesco UK Imported range.

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