Smart till tech Costcutter

Costcutter is trialling an “intelligent” cash drawer that it says consigns daily cashing up to history.

The retailer is testing the Smarttill in a “handful” of outlets with a view to making it available to its 2,600 stores across the UK.

Other sectors in mainland Europe, including hospitality companies in Spain, are testing the equipment but Costcutter is the first symbol group.

Costcutter stores testing the equipment include Baz Jethwa’s Plodder Lane outlet in Farnworth, Lancashire.

“We have not only found it very easy to use, but also found it is saving us a significant amount of time. We will be looking to install a Smarttill at our second store later this year,” said Jethwa.

The equipment, claimed to be “the first intelligent cash drawer on the market”, uses weighing technology to count all notes and coins automatically within seconds of closing it.

The till automatically reconciles every cash transaction and provides full reports for retailers on key figures including the value of rolling floats, change needed, top-up values, pick-up values and sales values, saving retailers up to half an hour each day per point of sale terminal.

The manufacturer, APG/Cash Bases, said businesses achieved a reduction in cash losses of up to 90% and a labour saving of half an hour every day, providing a return on investment in less than a year.

“We demonstrated the Smarttill Cash Management Solution at our conference last year and there was a real appetite for it from our retailers,” said Costcutter IT director Dave Morris

“The intelligent cash drawers give retailers another way to create efficiencies within their stores and the results from the trials have been very positive.”