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Wincor Nixdorf scores with 7-Eleven in Taiwan

Though it hasn't earned as much attention as 7-Eleven's Vcom project in the United States, a mass deployment of ATMs at 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan marks a major win for vendor Wincor Nixdorf.

May 22, 2002

In terms of ATM bragging rights, 7-Eleven is the top of the props.

NCR has been touting its involvement in 7-Eleven's Vcom program in the United States, for which it provides hardware, software and maintenance. As the retailer reportedly prepares to roll out more kiosks that allow customers to perform financial transactions such as check cashing and money transfers, another deployment of advanced function ATMs quietly commenced this month at 7-Eleven stores some 8,000 miles away.

An initial installation of 1,500 ProCash 1500 ATMs manufactured by Wincor Nixdorf is expected to proceed at a pace of about 100 machines a month at 7-Eleven stores across Taiwan.

Charles Chao, Wincor's director of sales for Asia Pacific, said the $30 million deal will ultimately include up to 2,500 ATMs over the next two years. Two financial institutions, Chinatrust Commercial Bank and Grand Commercial Bank, will each own half of the machines. Wincor will provide software, service and maintenance.

No spotlight necessary

While it hasn't garnered the same kind of slavish press attention as the Vcom program, Wincor considers it a major win. Karl-Heinz Stiller, the company's chief executive officer, alluded to the tough competition for the contract in talks given to the press and customers at Wincor World, a trade event last February at Wincor headquarters in Paderborn, Germany.

"Everybody fought for this deal, but we got it," Stiller said. "Two or three years ago, we wouldn't have won such a project because we didn't have the ability to manage it."

Noting that Wincor's primary market, Germany, accounted for 46 percent of the company's revenues in 2001, down from 51 percent in 2000, Stiller said Wincor is striving to beef up its presence around the world. 

He named the Taiwan deployment as one of two key deals for Wincor in that respect, with the other a contract with E*TRADE Access to supply 1,000 ProCash Compact ATMs to be installed in Target stores in the United States. It's also the largest contract to date involving Wincor ATMs at off-site locations.

"We're starting to gain a stronger foothold around the world," Stiller told the crowd in Paderborn.

More functionality, less machine

Chao said that 7-Eleven Taiwan wants to become a "community center," and that providing Web-enabled transactions such as bill payment and e-commerce at the ATMs is a part of that strategy. "They want to provide a variety of financial services, not just cash dispensing."

Taiwan has an area of just 13,807 square miles, or about a third the size of Indiana, yet is packed with a population of 23 million. Because of that, footprint was a critical factor.

Up to 2,500 ProCash 1500s like this will be installed at 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan in the next two years.

Chao said that 7-Eleven Taiwan wanted advanced functionality but in a unit no larger than a typical freestanding cash dispenser. The Windows NT-based ProCash 1500 has high-end features such as a 15-inch color touchscreen, yet is just 55 inches tall, 18 inches wide and 28 inches deep, he said.

Taiwan is an ATM-friendly country, with some 14,000 machines in 1999 according to the Asian Banker's "Asian ATM Market Study 2000." Retail Banking Research ranked Taiwan ninth in terms of ATM density in relation to population in its report "The Global ATM Market to 2004."

Chao estimates that 60 percent of ATMs in Taiwan are at bank branches, however, so the 7-Eleven deployment marks a major departure for the banks. There are approximately 2,600 7-Eleven stores in Taiwan, all of which should be good sites, Chao said.

"The banks don't have to worry about whether they put the ATM in the right place. They'll have guaranteed traffic at the 7-Eleven stores," he said. "If there's no traffic, 7-Eleven closes down the store."

The banks and 7-Eleven will share the fee income from the machines. While there is no surcharging in Taiwan, Chao said that interchange provides a significant revenue stream because transaction volumes are as high as 12,000 a month in large cities.