Spirits of Pennsylvania
PLCB's Premium Collection Wine & Spirits stores target consumers' growing interest in wine. At 11,000 square feet, many are twice the size of traditional locations. They incorporate trendy decor and offer climate control for fine wines and refrigerated units for chilled wines. More checkout counters expedite customer service. One Stop Shops feature the new refrigeration features along with groceries.
But varied formats mean that the $1.5 billion Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) has a wider variety of bottles-along with canned and packaged goods-to keep track of in its 622 stores. Installation of Oracle's E-business suite and Oracle Fusion Middleware should help the PLCB manage purchase orders more effectively and improve inventory management. Products will be deployed over the next 18 months.
PLCB chairman Patrick "P.J." Stapleton III expects the retail arm of PLCB to experience "better workflow and coordination in the organization." A centralized data warehouse will provide consistent sales data. "We can also use this data as an asset in analyzing customers," he adds. Stapleton also hopes to see major improvements in forecasting, supply chain management and product availability. "The PLCB understands that it can better serve its customers by taking a retail-specific approach and leveraging industry best practices."
PLCB is an inpendent government agency. Profits from stores go directly into the state's, and ultimately the public's, coffers. "We see a significant opportunity to leverage Oracle's products to help deliver additional revenue to the people of Pennsylvania and improve our services," notes Stapleton.
The 75-year-old PLCB is one of the largest purchasers of wine and spirits is North America with sales in excess of $1.5 billion. In addition to operating its own stores, the independent government agency regulates and licenses all Pennsylvania alcohol sales in bars, restaurants and other establishments.