(Irving, TX - June 23, 1998) With 27 convenience stores in California's Greater
Bay Area, Mission Oil Corporation is always searching for innovative ways to cut
costs and increase profits to stay ahead in the highly competitive convenience
store industry. After careful analysis of its business, Mission Oil recognized a
need for improved cash management, which would increase security and drastically
reduce time spent handling cash. Mission Oil chose to implement Brink's
CompuSafeŽ Service, an in-store electronic cash processing service that combines
secure transportation, processing and banking of funds.
Before choosing Brink's CompuSafe Service, Mission Oil reviewed a number of
partial services and solutions, including a safe they could have purchased, but
none was from a single source. Mission Oil chose CompuSafe Service because it
was a comprehensive system combining effective cash management, safety and
convenience. In October 1996, Mission Oil began testing Brink's CompuSafe
Service. Today, all of its convenience stores operate with Brink's CompuSafe
Service units.
Previous cash handling methods were inefficient, time consuming and risky.
"In the past, employees would drop cash in $100 [increments]," said Jerry
Cummings, Mission Oil president. "Each day, the manager would collect the money,
go to a bank and count the money. It was clumsy but it was better than counting
it at the station." Brink's CompuSafe Service is a single-source, in-store cash
processing service designed to significantly improve cash operations and
increase security. Brink's has integrated armored transportation, deposit
processing, banking and hardware/software maintenance into its CompuSafe
Service. Designed for cash-intensive retail businesses, CompuSafe Service
eliminates the need for the manager to count, sort, reconcile and go to the
bank.
That alone saves an enormous amount of time for convenience store managers and
employees.
"Managers don't have to worry about trying to get to the bank everyday," said
Cummings. "If there is a shift change, they do not have to find someone to cover
the store while someone else goes to the bank. They don't even have to be at the
store for actual pick-up. Essentially, it gives them more time to do other
tasks." The CompuSafe unit enables managers to print a record of transactions at
any time during the day. Employees deposit currency into the unit. It validates
the bills and places them in secure cassettes, recording every transaction by
employee, shift and business day. On a scheduled basis, Brink's armored truck
representatives pick up the cassettes and take them to their currency rooms.
Deposits are combined from various locations and the funds are transferred to a
single client's bank. Brink's guarantees that the cassette amount recorded on
the printout will be the amount deposited in the bank.
"It's one less worry for our managers," Cummings said. "They never have to touch
the money. Instead of organizing their day around the bank's cut-off time, our
managers are free to do their job - manage our stores."
"The benefits are already noticeable," Cummings said. "It reduces payroll hours
and lessens auditing problems because it is simply more efficient. In general,
managers love it. We just don't have the concerns we used to."
Brink's, founded in 1859, is the largest provider of armored services in the
world, with over 150 facilities across the United States and a global network
that spans 49 countries. Pittston Brink's Group Common Stock (NYSE-PZB),
Pittston Burlington Group Common Stock (NYSE-PZX), and Pittston Minerals Group
Common Stock (NYSE-PZM), represent the three classes of common stock of The
Pittston Company, a diversified company with interests in security services
through Brink's Incorporated and Brink's Home Security, Inc. (Pittston Brink's
Group), global freight transportation and logistics management services through
BAX Global (Pittston Burlington Group) and coal and gold mining (Pittston
Mineral Group).