Tesco is getting excited all over again about the potential of electronic shelf-edge labels, following a successful pilot of the ­technology at a store in Leicester.
The retailer has tested the labelling system on a small scale at the store&'s deli counter for the past nine months and is now expanding the pilot to the chilled products and fresh foods sections of the same store. It will also roll it out to a second store next month.
The move marks a return to the concept for Tesco.
In 2003 it ran trials of electronic shelf edge labels in the biscuit aisle of its Irlam store in Manchester, at a deli counter at a second store and at its store in Hove, East Sussex.
The labelling technology has also been trialled by Safeway, Superquinn and the Oxford, Swindon & Gloucester Co-operative.
Tesco said that it was looking again at the concept because it could make significant time savings using electronic labelling rather than printed versions. But this time round, the focus would be on counters, rather than on aisles and main store shelving.
&"The technology is continually developing and we expect trials to continue,&" a Tesco spokeswoman added.
David Roger, vice president of sales and marketing at technology company ZBD, which developed the system, said that the expanded trials would use a newly launched second-generation system.
The system is smaller and has improved graphics, water and shock resistance capability compared with the previously tested first-generation models.

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