TCS wins prestigious “supply chain project of the year” award in the UK

Award won for implementing “SMART” solutions at Co-operative
Enabled Co-operative to effectively engage with the customers and significantly improve its on-shelf availability in stores

London | Mumbai, December 18, 2012: Tata Consultancy Services (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading IT services, consulting and business solutions firm, announced it had won the prestigious “Supply Chain Project of the Year” at the Hermes Retail Weekly UK Supply Chain Awards 2012. TCS won the award along with The Co-operative Group for implementing “Store Merchandise and Replenishment System” (SMART), a major transformation program for The Co-operative Group’s food business, a key player in the UK grocery sector.

The Co-operative Group chose to partner with TCS to develop and deliver the SMART initiative, which has affected the Co-operative Group’s food business positively. This ambitious project introduced new systems to enable effective stock forecasting and replenishment and range control at all The Co-operative Group’s food stores. The initiative also delivered a significant improvement in stock availability.

“Implementing SMART has helped us scientifically map and implement an effective supply chain that dictates greater process compliance and at the same time improved our cross functional collaboration between departments. The SMART solution has helped our business to effectively manage our ‘on-shelf’ availability and replenishment processes that have allowed us to increase the time colleagues have in store to serve our customers,” said Mark Hale, CIO & Supply Chain Director, The Co-operative Food.

“Our constant innovations in improving our clients’ supply chain management solutions have paid dividends by enabling them to make appropriate business decisions and at the same time achieve enhanced operational efficiencies,” said Shankar Narayanan, Head, TCS UK & Ireland. “Winning this prestigious award is a testimony to our commitment to The Co-operative Group and our ability to deliver the best-in-class solutions to the global retail industry,” he added.

TCS’ Retail Solutions deliver innovative solutions from supply chain transformation and integrated demand and replenishment planning to logistics and warehouse management to help companies seamlessly manage supply chain and networks. Leveraging its domain expertise and network delivery model, TCS incorporates process improvements across the various facets of a supply chain while remaining cost effective. In the UK, TCS works with 8 of the Top 10 retail brands.

The Hermes Retail Week Supply Chain Awards is a reputed industry award that recognizes and rewards excellence in all aspects of supply chain in the retail industry. This year, the award event was held at London on September 12, 2012, and was attended by over 500 of the UK’s top retailers and their supply chain partners.

About Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. (TCS)
Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT, BPS, infrastructure, engineering and assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery Model™, recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata group, India’s largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has over 300,000 of the world’s best-trained consultants in 46 countries. The company generated consolidated revenues of US $13.4 billion for year ended March 31, 2014 and is listed on the National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India. For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com.

About The Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group is the UK’s largest mutual business, owned not by private shareholders but by over seven million consumers. It is the UK’s fifth biggest food retailer and a major financial services provider, operating The Co-operative Bank and The Co-operative Insurance. Among its other businesses are the number one funeral services provider, the third largest pharmacy chain and one of Britain’s largest farming operations. As well as having clear financial and operational objectives, the Group has also set out its social and sustainability goals in its groundbreaking Ethical Plan, which specifies over 50 commitments in these areas.

The Group operates 4,800 retail trading outlets, employs more than 106,000 people and has an annual turnover of more than £13bn. Further information is available at www.co-operative.coop.