In 2009 the Irish Hardware and Building Materials Association (IHBMA) held their Retail Business Conference and guest speaker at the conference was US Retailing Expert, Art Freedman.

Art was invited to talk to Irish Hardware Retailers on his area of specialism retail profitability and margin management based on his retail success competing with the “big multiples in the US’, as well as how to maintain top of mind awareness with your customers and potential customers.

His keynote seminar focused on how many retailers struggle to improve their bottom line and how technology and systems can make the retailer more efficient, more profitable and save time.

It was here that the then President of the IHBMA, Mr John Murphy first learned about Margin Master and quickly identified that it would be of huge benefit to Irish Retailers.

At the conference Art Freedman identified that the majority of the audience still used the old manual pricing practices. This was what really struck a cord with John Murphy, just how inefficient the Hardware Retail Industry was in Ireland when it came to pricing, margin management and profitability.

John Murphy believed Margin Master would give value to many retailers in Ireland and he lead the way to introduce Margin Master to Ireland and the UK when he linked up with the software developer, Brad Green.

In John’s own words, ‘Sitting in the Conference that day listening to Art Freedman was inspiring but when I heard about the outstanding profitability to be leveraged from a simple margin management software tool, I was hooked and made a promise to myself to bring this to Ireland & UK.

The changes and downward pressure in the Irish economy were so acute that I was witnessing so many retailers struggling like never before and the old answers were just not cutting it anymore and we were witnessing the business of survival becoming the norm. What I believed I discovered on that day listening to Art Freedman was priceless and to not act upon it would have been a disservice to the industry I had worked in for 2 decades.’

John Murphy took on a new mission in the middle of 2009 to find out if this software could be made compatible to the Irish and UK markets. Much hard work was undertaken between John and his team in Ireland and the US team lead by developer Brad Green.

Going into 2010 a missing link was identified and John instantly knew the team and company to deliver the successful implementation of Margin Master to the Irish and UK retail market. In the middle of 2010, leading Irish company, Trojan Complete IT Solutions, became a key partner in the successful introduction of Margin Master to Ireland through their ability to develop the essential ‘technical interfaces’ between retailer POS and Margin Master.

Software expert and Trojan Director, Des McLoughlin, stated on partnering with John;

‘Learning about Margin Master and its potential to change the face of margin management in retail in Ireland was a no-brainer for the team at Trojan. We have been steeped in providing hardware and software solutions for the Hardware and Building Retail sector in Ireland for 2 decades and immediately saw the huge benefit to a retail owner.’

Going into 2011 Margin Master is now compatible with a number of Retailer POS systems and is currently being implemented in retail businesses in Ireland.

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