Coles Group deploys RELEX Solutions supply chain technology

Australian retailer Coles Group has partnered with RELEX Solutions on a project involving end-to-end supply chain planning for fresh produce categories as well as its long-term inventory planning capabilities.

The RELEX solution, part of its Living Retail Platform, will service the retailer’s 850+ supermarkets nationally and its seven fresh produce distribution centres, with the aim of driving better customer service, reduced food waste, and improved supplier collaboration.

Also of interest: M&S Food enlists RELEX Solutions for supply chain project

Coles Executive General Manager Central Operations and Transformation Kevin Gunn says that Coles started the journey of centralising its replenishment model more than ten years ago.

“Fresh produce presents many unique challenges compared to other parts of the grocery business: shorter shelf life, seasonality, price elasticity, along with the diverse and complex growing seasons and regions we are challenged with in Australia,” he comments.

“Using the RELEX solution to centralise the control of the replenishment model allows Coles to provide increased efficiency in one of our most complex supply chains and improve the customer experience through more targeted ranges, improved availability, fresher products, and simpler processes for our team members and our suppliers.

“The centralised ordering of fresh produce will also help to reduce waste on our existing range and minimise waste on new ranges, which is important to us as Coles aims to become Australia’s most sustainable supermarket.”

Coles CIO Roger Sniezek adds: “RELEX is a modern, automated, cloud-based replenishment solution provider to a number of leading grocers across Europe and the US.”

“It represents a best-in-class technology solution that will deliver another major component of our technology led strategy.”

“The initiative forms part of our Easy Ordering programme, which is a critical project in delivering on our Smarter Selling strategy.”

He concludes: “The new replenishment platform will integrate with Coles’ existing in-house advanced analytics smarter forecasting solution, which has already been rolled out to other non-fresh categories.”

“This will enable an improved customer offer by not only taking into account past purchases, but also factoring weather and local community events into the forecasting algorithms.”