In the dynamic world of food wholesale, fast and reliable inventory and sales planning is crucial to success. Transgourmet Austria uses REMIRA's LOGOMATE software solution for this purpose. It has proven to be an indispensable tool for inventory management and supply chain control – even in challenging times such as the coronavirus pandemic. The company praises LOGOMATE as being particularly valuable for two-stage replenishment.
Transgourmet Austria is the second-largest food wholesaler in Europe and is part of the Swiss Coop Group. It primarily supplies the catering and hotel industries. Transgourmet's product range comprises 29,000 items covering everything restaurateurs need, including non-food items. This ensures a full supply for around 35,000 customers. Dispatching is handled by 13 employees, which corresponds to 11 full-time positions. Currently, 250,000 SKUs are dispatched to 15 sales locations, a frozen food warehouse, a fresh food warehouse (including cross-docking), and a dry goods warehouse. A new location in Klagenfurt with an additional 20,000 SKUs will open soon. The integration of a subsidiary (approx. 30,000 SKUs) is planned for 2025.
The sales locations source 80% of their goods directly from suppliers, with the remainder coming from their own warehouses. Approximately 60% of goods are delivered to customers, while 40% are purchased by customers on site. Delivery usually takes place within 24 hours of receipt of order. Procurement channels are constantly changing, with daily orders for fresh products and weekly orders for other product ranges. The number of delivery days cannot be reduced as there is insufficient storage space at the locations, which underlines the importance of order quantities that are tailored to demand.
Company has relied on REMIRA solutions for 15 years
The company has been using REMIRA's LOGOMATE replenishment software since 2009. Before LOGOMATE was introduced, Transgourmet had no digital support and the time required for scheduling was extremely high. Replenishment staff had to estimate when and how many of the 25,000 different items needed to be ordered. This led to shortages and a significant breakage and spoilage rate due to excessive inventory levels – especially since the wholesaler also stores a corresponding amount of perishable goods. Shortly after implementation, spoilage was significantly reduced. Inventory levels were reduced by 15%, while product availability increased by 13%. Since 2013, Transgourmet has been working with a central dispatching system for all 15 sales outlets and the additional warehouses.
“This centralization has enabled us to further increase product availability and reduce dispatching costs, so that despite growth, we have been able to maintain almost the same number of employees as before. Thanks to reliable demand and sales planning, we always have the ideal quantities in stock. Our cross-docking process would also be much more complex without LOGOMATE”,
reports Christine Keszner, Head of Procurement Logistics at Transgourmet Österreich.
The AI-based software recognizes impending out-of-stock scenarios at an early stage by simulating goods sales. Seasonal fluctuations are also automatically taken into account in demand planning.
“We would not be able to make these quick adjustments to fluctuating quantities without LOGOMATE.”
Transgourmet Austria also uses the LM promo+ module to calculate promotional quantities and LM push to distribute remaining stock for seasonal items. Many of the food wholesaler's items are advertised in various media at different times with different promotional prices. LOGOMATE uses historical comparison data to calculate the appropriate promotional quantity for the future. LOGOMATE is also very good at planning new store openings, adds Keszner:
“We use it to handle initial stocking and ongoing scheduling from the first day of sales. LOGOMATE offers us many options for responding quickly to changes. Seasonal recognition at new locations also works extremely well.”
LOGOMATE also proved its worth during the pandemic
The AI-based software also proved valuable during the coronavirus pandemic. Hotels and restaurants had to close temporarily due to lockdowns. This caused demand for some products to collapse completely, while others continued to be ordered. “During this time, it was crucial for us to be able to adjust our inventories quickly in order to respond to the change in demand and minimize spoilage at the same time,” explains Keszner. During this period, more manual adjustments were necessary because there was no historical comparison data. “But thanks to the excellent support from REMIRA, we managed to do that too,” says the division manager. Increased data exchange with suppliers enabled Transgourmet to better align its inventory with demand, which was particularly important when restaurants reopened.
“With LOGOMATE, even in these difficult times, we had a tool that enabled us to estimate quantities very accurately, calculate demand, and communicate this to our suppliers,”
praises Keszner.
The approach has proven its worth and has been retained in part even after the pandemic. Suppliers can now receive weekly order forecasts for the next 26 weeks from Transgourmet, which are calculated by LOGOMATE. If necessary, the software can also calculate demand for even longer periods. “This means our suppliers always know exactly what quantities we are calculating with and can adjust their production accordingly,” explains Keszner.
Transgourmet Austria is very satisfied with LOGOMATE because it covers all procurement requirements and is easy to use. “The graphical representations are easy to understand and you don't have to be a statistics expert to see how an order proposal is generated,” praises Christine Keszner. Manual intervention in the order proposal and also in the forecast is possible without any problems if necessary. “LOGOMATE is very flexible and is also being continuously developed. REMIRA always responds to our requirements. A software failure would be a disaster for us. Fortunately, that has never happened.”
Facts
- 25,000 items in the product range
- 35,000 customers
- 15% reduction in inventory after one year
- 13% increase in product availability in the same period
- 50% reduction in food spoilage
Are you interested in our replenishment software? We are happy to help!
