Caricia to Install XpertMart Software in Guatemalan Retail Chain

February 1, 2005

(CAMBRIDGE, MA) - Industrias Caricia, one of the largest independent retailers of Central America, announced today that it has selected XpertMart retail enterprise software to run its subsidiary of 20 footwear stores in Guatemala.

Industrias Caricia chose XpertMart after an in-depth comparison with other leading Point of Sale & Inventory Control applications. The decision to install XpertMart in Guatemalan stores comes after more than three years of successfully using XpertMart software in 50 stores in El Salvador.

"We have seen dramatic cost savings by detecting trends early, empowering employees and reducing the time needed to analyze information and make decisions," says CEO Egan. "In the last three years I can honestly say that XpertMart has more than paid for itself."

Caricia will use XpertMart to set minimum stock levels based on sales history along with it auto transfer functions to automatically replenish sales in their 20 stores in Guatemala on a bi-weekly basis the way they currently do with their stores in El Salvador.

"We wanted the detailed control offered by XpertMart's inventory audit log which shows how every single change to inventory is applied," says Caricia CEO Omar Egan. "The cost of not knowing your inventory can be overwhelming. We have dramatically reduced this cost by using XpertMart."

One of the main criteria for selection a retail enterprise system was how well it would integrate with Caricia's other systems. Caricia is a vertically integrated company that runs everything from tanneries to retail stores.

"Because XpertMart is built on open standards, we have been able to take advantage of our previous investments in technology such as using our existing Oracle database server and Business Intelligence software," CEO Egan says. "XpertMart has done a great job of documenting their database structure so integration with our accounting and payroll systems was a breeze."

XpertMart's proprietary synchronization process gets all the sales and inventory data from the stores to the main office automatically overnight. Since XpertMart's data is stored in a relational OLAP format, Caricia is able to immediately analyze the previous days sales and stock and compare it to any previous sales period.

"We know exactly what's going in our stores," says Egan. "We have been able to increase our sales while lowering our total investment in inventory."

The rollout and installation of XpertMart in the Guatemala stores is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

About Industrias Caricia
With over 30 years in the market, Industrias Caricia is the second most important footwear company in El Salvador. Caricia manufactures over 100,000 pairs of footwear a month. A vertically integrated company, Caricia owns and operates everything from a tannery and an out-sole factory, to footwear retail stores. Caricia currently operates over 70 stores in Central America under two chains: Lee Shoes, which is a family oriented footwear chain, and Top Brands, which is a higher priced chain specializing in selling only the best footwear brands.

About XpertMart
XpertMart is a complete retail management system specifically designed for retailers of apparel, footwear, accessories and sporting goods. At the heart of XpertMart is a Style/Color/Size1/Size2 matrix used to display stock levels, sales and other critical data. XpertMart is written entirely in Java and can run on Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. XpertMart is developed by Dinari Systems LLC and is used by retailers in the US, Canada, UK, Latin America and the Caribbean. A free trial version is available for immediate download at our web site: www.xpertmart.com

Tel (954) 688-3045

* Return to Press Releases *