K VA T Food Stores launches holiday gift card program with ACI Worldwide
(New York, N.Y. – 26 March 2009) – ACI Worldwide, Inc. (Nasdaq: ACIW), a leading international provider of electronic payments software and solutions, today announced that K-VA-T Food Stores, which runs the Food City chain, implemented ACI Retail Commerce Server™ in time for the 2008 holiday season to enable it to issue and manage its own and third party gift cards. This implementation enabled K-VA-T to issue Food City-branded gift cards in the 94 Food City stores across Kentucky, Virginia and Tennessee.
Retail Commerce Server and the Value Card Management module enables Food City to issue and manage its own pre-paid gift cards, as well as managing third-party cards. The system manages fixed or variable-value cards, and handles elements of card management, such as simply checking and changing balances, through order management of bulk purchases of cards for charitable organizations, to supporting loyalty programs or managing card end-of-life. This functionality gives K-VA-T the opportunity to expand and change its gift card program in the future, without being restricted by the technology.
Ralph Dangelmaier, President of the Americas for ACI Worldwide, said “The Food City stores are essential parts of their local communities. They serve a market of 2.5 million people, and endeavour to predict and meet the changing needs of those customers. The project to roll out Retail Commerce Server had a strict timeframe for delivery, and we are delighted that we could meet those deadlines.” With the system in place for the holiday season, K-VA-T was able to issue more than 115,000 prepaid and gift cards, which improved cash flow and reduced transaction processing costs.
Paul Widener, Vice President of Information Services at K-VA-T, said “Pre-paid and gift cards are one of the fastest growing areas of payment cards, and we wanted to be able to issue and manage our own branded gift cards in-house while adding the third-party gift card program in a very limited period of time. By working with ACI we were able to ensure the system was up and running with a shortened delivery schedule in time for the critical holiday period.”
In addition to its own branded cards, the new system enables Food City to offer third party cards through the Blackhawk prepaid and payments network.
About K-VA-T Food Stores Inc.
Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, K-VA-T Food Stores, Inc. (Food City’s parent company) currently operates 102 retail food outlets in the tri-state regions of Southeast Kentucky, Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee.
About ACI Worldwide
ACI Worldwide is a leading provider of electronic payments software and services to major banks, retailers and processors around the world. The company enables online payment processing, online banking, fraud prevention and detection, and back-office services. ACI solutions provide market-leading levels of reliability, manageability and scale, to more than 800 customers in 88 countries. Visit ACI Worldwide at www.aciworldwide.com.
Contact details
For more information contact:
Catherine Eyres
ACI Worldwide
+44 1923 812741
Catherine.Eyres@aciworldwide.com
