On a growth path – Spar Austria

The SPAR Austria Group is a privately owned, family-run Austrian business. Since its foundation in 1954, the company has grown from a nationwide food retailer into a highly successful Central European retail group. Today, the group operates in the retail sectors food, sports and shopping centers in Austria and seven other countries. At the end of 2019, the SPAR Austria Group employed some 85,000 people at over 3,200 sites. The company ranks as Austria’s largest private-sector employer with more than 45,700 staff. Through SPAR, INTERSPAR, EUROSPAR, Maximarkt and SPAR-Gourmet stores and express gas station shops, the Group can meet virtually all customer wishes thanks to its differentiated sales concepts. The Group continues to set benchmarks in terms of store architecture, product variety, logistics and a focus on regional produce. To maintain a high degree of service quality while keeping the lid on costs, the retailer decided to introduce a digital planning tool. The Management and the internal IT department – SPAR ICS – chose ATOSS and an integrated workforce management approach. They were won over by our retail expertise and the high level of functionality our software offers. Especially important was the fact that our Enterprise Solution can integrate labor and employment laws as well as the retail collective bargaining agreement without additional programming. The innovative company is harmonizing and optimizing all its working time and workforce scheduling systems and processes as part of a comprehensive digitalization project. 

In future, some 1,600 retail outlets with over 30,000 staff will benefit from customer-focused planning and scheduling, precise workforce forecasting and break-time optimization. Around 3,000 employees at headquarters and in administration are being equipped with the Staff Center for intuitive self services. What’s more, our mobile app is bringing greater transparency and efficiency to working time and workforce schedules – for some 34,000 staff across the board. SPAR ICS and ATOSS are working closely together in implementing this challenging project. In the medium term, the group plans to integrate the majority of the staff at home and abroad into this advanced digital workforce management solution. SPAR keeps setting new standards – this now includes the exceptional focus on customers and staff.

Corporate figures as of December 2019

Source: ATOSS Customer Spar | ATOSS Annual Report 2020