BRACKNELL, England and DEN BOSCH, The Netherlands, June 26 /PRNewswire/ --     Food retailer Waitrose has selected the Quintiq Advanced Planning and
Scheduling Suite for its TOPS project (Transport Optimisation Planning
System). This project is aimed at implementing one centralised solution for
all transport planning, dispatch and yard management across the four
distribution centres and 183 branches of Waitrose.

Waitrose is one of the largest food retailers in the UK. It combines the
convenience of a supermarket with the expertise and service of a specialist
shop. Waitrose takes special pride in the freshness and quality of its food.
Fresh produce arrives daily at its branches. To support business growth and
improve the efficiency of its store delivery operation, Waitrose started a
selection process for implementing a state-of-the-art centralised transport
planning solution. Until now the company has been using a mix of manual
planning, spreadsheet and planning software. This approach was no longer able
to support the increasingly complex puzzle of delivering a variety of
products to its branches, including many perishable goods, which have to be
delivered as early as possible.

Having spent some time looking for potential suppliers Waitrose selected
five software solutions. Two vendors were then asked to prepare a Proof of
Concept to ensure that they really met the requirements. Quintiq demonstrated
that its software could capture any business rule and was really capable of
allowing Waitrose to plan in the way they wanted to. Quintiq was also able to
show that Waitrose could reduce costs through the implementation of an
Advanced Planning Solution.

Waitrose will use the Quintiq planning system to create a tactical plan
based on expected volumes. This plan will then be used as the basis for the
daily load plan, which is made for the following day. The Quintiq system will
then also deal with daily exceptions as they occur. In addition it offers a
site management solution for the movement of trailers between a number of
warehouses at the Bracknell and Aylesford RDCs. The solution will go live in
early 2008.

"The key reason why we chose Quintiq was the ability of the project team
to work with us and to show us a perfect-fit solution for all our long- and
short-term planning challenges", says Helen Heighes, Manager Distribution
Projects from Waitrose. "To organise and plan multiple fleets from one
central location gives visibility and flexibility throughout the entire
planning process."

"For companies like Waitrose that offer a variety of fresh products,
effective planning is key in delivering on its quality promise. Quintiq is
proud to be able to contribute to this by providing its state-of-the-art
planning solution. Based on our wide experience in the transport sector, we
are convinced that our solution will help Waitrose boost its efficiency and
improve customer satisfaction," says Arjen Heeres, COO at Quintiq.

About Waitrose

www.waitrose.com

About Quintiq

www.quintiq.com