Booths, Britain’s leading regional supermarket chain, has become the first high street retailer in the UK to pick RELEX, Europe’s fastest growing supply chain development solution provider, to help improve its replenishment management.
Booths has always prided itself on offering top quality produce and was impressed by the results RELEX’s existing clients had achieved, especially in getting the best results from promotions and improving the automatic replenishment of fresh goods, where some have cut spoilage by as much as 40%.
Booths already had an integrated in-house solution however the company saw the need for a better and more sophisticated approach to its forecasting.
RELEX’s demand forecasting and inventory management systems have earned an impressive reputation for helping retailers to cut fresh produce spoilage, reduce stock levels, boost availability and manage events like seasonal campaigns and the impact of weather.
The systems analyse vast flows of historic data and identify demand patterns for individual products, stores and events which can be used to help predict demand in comparable future situations.
“Booths is known for great service, for listening to its customers and for delivering the very best quality,” says Andrew Rafferty, the company’s IT & Supply Director, “but our customers won’t make allowances if we don’t match or better the big supermarkets for freshness and availability.”
“We need to meet the challenges of a modern, grocery environment in managing fresh, ambient, chilled and frozen produce lines across a variety of store sizes and product ranges. The bar is always getting higher and no one in the sector can afford to be complacent.”
When looking for a solution Booths wanted one that would wrap around their operations rather than force them to work around the system. Andrew Rafferty was impressed by RELEX’s technology and the company’s attitude.
“Our initial impressions were that RELEX offers flexibility both in terms of their solution’s adaptability and in their approach to working with partners” he says. “They offer a very sensibly priced pilot that minimises their clients’ risk. It’s just one of many signs they’re committed to a successful outcome and that in turn gives me confidence we can improve both our performance and our bottom-line.”
RELEX have already carried out a pre-study with Booths running their historic data through RELEX systems to demonstrate the potential gains. The pilot is due to begin in January.
“Booths is an ideal partner for RELEX,” says Tommi Ylinen, RELEX’s Head of UK Operations. “Not only do they have a reputation for excellence but they’re exactly the sort of company that we can help; they need to be as good as or better than their larger competitors, they need the best technology and it needs to match their budget.”
“We’ve shown companies across Europe, typically turning over between £100M-£5Bn, that they can not only afford great systems to help optimise their supply chains – but that they simply can’t afford not to!”