127 Kringwinkels connected with Tilroy: one platform, local strength

With Tilroy, Kringwinkel built a digital backbone that connects all stores, without losing their local autonomy. Thanks to the master and sub tenant structure, customers, gift cards and prices can be managed across all stores, as if it were one organisation. Hans De Boeck, Business analyst at Kringwinkel, plays a key role in this. As former IT manager at Kiemkracht he knows the stores' needs inside out, and uses Tilroy's APIs to build his own tools that make life easier for the members.

From islands to one platform

The search for a solution was thorough. Kringwinkel contacted dozens of suppliers, from local players to big international names. The requirements were fixed: a partner who understands the context of the social economy, open APIs for integrations, support for sales, service and rental, and above all a POS simple enough for everyone. Including people with a distance to the labour market.

"Tilroy stood out because they listened," says Hans. "With other players custom work was out of the question. Tilroy thought along and gave us the freedom to adapt the system to our reality."

What began with a few pioneering Kringwinkels grew into a project with national reach. Each member got its own tenant in Tilroy, but through a master and sub tenant structure all stores are connected. That setup combines the best of both worlds: local autonomy with the power of a central platform. Customers are recognised everywhere, gift cards can be used universally and prices and barcodes are the same everywhere.

Digital collaboration in the circular economy

Implementing Tilroy brought not only technological uniformity, but also social progress. Because the system works visually and intuitively, employees can get started faster. Even those with little digital experience. "We work with people who sometimes have little IT knowledge," Hans explains. "Tilroy makes that no longer a limitation. Everyone can work with it."

The benefits are felt at every level. New employees are trained in one day, where it used to take weeks. New stores or temporary pop-ups can be operational within 24 hours. And reporting, which used to run through local servers and VPNs, now happens centrally and in real time.

From POS system to innovation platform

What sets Kringwinkel apart is how they not only use Tilroy, but actively build on it. Hans and his team develop their own applications via Tilroy's APIs. For example, they built a registration terminal that lets customers sign themselves up at the checkout, handy for people who speak other languages or have limited digital skills. The way products are registered was automated too: barcodes now combine product and price information, eliminating thousands of manual entries.

That openness is also the basis for the next step: one shared loyalty card system that works across all stores. On top of that, Kringwinkel is building a central marketing platform in which customer and sales data from Tilroy are linked directly to a CDP. "Everyone used to have their own Mailchimp," says Hans. "Soon we will send personalised campaigns based on purchase behaviour, all from one data source."

The POS as the front end of circularity

At Kringwinkel retail is not only about sales, but about impact. Every transaction contributes to social employment and to reducing the waste mountain. Even the POS logic is tailored to that: transactions are registered not only at product level, but also by waste category.

"Our checkouts work with waste codes instead of product codes," Hans explains. "That way we literally measure how many tonnes we take off the waste mountain. You could indeed say that Tilroy is the front end of our circular mission."

That way of working is unique. It shows how technology can help make social objectives concretely measurable, without making operations more complex for employees on the floor.

Moving forward together

Today more than 120 Kringwinkels are live with Tilroy, and the network keeps growing. "The collaboration between Kringwinkel and Tilroy is down to earth, honest and future oriented," says Hans, "we can count on it. And if there is anything, you always look for a solution with us."

What once began as a fragmented landscape of local systems has grown into one connected ecosystem with collaboration at its centre. Kringwinkel proves that digital transformation is also possible in the social and circular economy, and that technology, when used well, not only streamlines processes but also brings people closer together.