Bodycare has selected PMC to build the digital infrastructure for its return to the UK high street, backing a store rollout that will begin with 25 openings in 2026.
The health and beauty retailer is rebuilding after being bought out of administration by a retail group in late 2025. It plans to expand to 200 locations over five years, with an initial six stores due to open in Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield and Derby in the first wave.
PMC will design and implement the technology roadmap for the new estate, covering store networks, core IT systems, security and in-store digital systems. It will also provide Bodycare's point-of-sale setup, including staffed checkouts, mobile tills and self-checkout kiosks.
Rather than refurbish a previous estate, Bodycare is attempting a ground-up rebuild. The retailer wants to run store operations through a proprietary AI platform that draws on data from systems including task management tools, CCTV, point of sale and digital shelf technology.
The project also reflects a broader retail shift towards stores that combine transactions with media and local engagement. Each location will include a content production studio designed to create local social media material featuring staff, customers and micro-influencers.
Store model
Bodycare describes the new format as community-led, with digital screens showing locally created material inside stores. The approach suggests it is seeking to differentiate itself on the high street not only through price and product range, but also through stores that function as local marketing channels.
Its technology architecture is central to that model. PMC will deploy its Graphene Engage platform for point of sale and its Connect data integration product as the orchestration layer linking store systems to Bodycare's central AI engine.
That extends PMC's remit beyond a conventional retail IT rollout. The supplier is being asked to build the technical backbone for a network of stores that will handle payments, operational data and live content production through connected systems.
David Stern, Managing Director of Bodycare, outlined the retailer's approach in a statement on the partnership.
"Store experience, digital presence and community engagement - all underpinned by AI intelligence - will be central to Bodycare's new vision, as we prepare to welcome customers back," said David Stern, Managing Director of Bodycare. "PMC is not just a transformation partner that we can trust with delivery - their trusted experience is helping us re-imagine, design and create the AI-led strategy to bring our vision for Bodycare 2.0 to life."
Rollout plans
Bodycare's target of 25 stores in 2026 and 50 by the end of the following year points to a rapid reopening programme. For PMC, the contract adds another named retail client to a customer list that already includes chains such as Primark, Superdry and Ann Summers.
The high street return comes at a time when physical retailers are under pressure to justify new store investment with more than footfall and sales density. Operators are increasingly using stores as distribution points, service hubs and media spaces, while also trying to reduce labour costs and improve stock accuracy through software and automation.
Bodycare's plan goes further than many peers by placing AI decision-making at the centre of daily store operations. According to the retailer, colleague actions will be shaped by insights drawn from store systems and data feeds gathered across the estate.
That creates a more demanding technology brief than a standard chain launch, because the network must support continuous data flows as well as front-end retail systems. It also means the rollout timetable will depend not just on property and staffing, but on whether the underlying systems can be standardised and repeated across dozens of sites.
PMC said Elliott Winskill, Technology & Solutions Director, is acting as technical lead for the project. He said the aim is to create a retail environment that links transactions, content and customer interaction through one connected stack.
"We're taking Bodycare's bold vision of AI-led but community-driven stores and connecting it with the innovation that will set them up for the future," said Elliott Winskill, Technology & Solutions Director at PMC. "It's about creating the scalability and fluidity within the tech stack that gives Bodycare customers the opportunity to interact - whether socially, through community-created content or by making purchases - at each stage of the in-store experience."