Afresh, the world’s leading fresh technology company, has officially announced the successful nationwide rollout of its Fresh Replenishment solution across the bakery and deli departments at all Albertsons Cos. stores, including Safeway, Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Shaw’s, Vons, and ACME.
According to certain reports, this technology effectively applies patent-pending AI and data modeling to better align Albertsons Cos.’ ordering, inventory and demand understanding for thousands of prepped, produced and transformed perishable items, thus addressing the core data challenge i.e. fresh to match demand with what is ordered or sold.
“Our partnership with Afresh has been a true game-changer in modernizing our fresh operations,” said Michelle Larson, EVP, Chief Merchandising Officer for Albertsons Cos. “This technology has allowed us to provide our customers with an even better shopping experience while empowering our store teams to keep customer favorites in stock and ensure that we are offering the best quality, freshest products to our communities.”
Talk about how Afresh’s solution operates across various domains, we begin from the bakery section. As many bakery items like bulk donuts, share a single retail ID, it becomes a change for vendors to track demand, inventory, and sales for specific varieties like chocolate, glazed or sprinkled donuts.
Against that, Afresh’s latest technology can simplify bakery inventory management so to ensure proper amount of donut varieties and icing is replenished at store level. More on that would reveal how this particular technology leverages advanced AI data models to determine item-level demand, inventory, and sales performance, even when sales data is aggregated into bulk totals.
Such a mechanism, like you can guess, treads up a long distance to enable that precise ordering of donut variety.
Next up, we have the Deli category. Here, the solution deals with the complex management of items produced in-store, such as turkey sandwiches that typically require accounting for the inventory and demand of both the finished sandwich and the ingredients used to make it.
In this regard, Afresh deploys patent-pending recipe data modeling to unlock efficiencies when ordering a whole chicken, as well as managing orders for all the ingredients that make up deli combo meals, where forecasting demand and inventory availability is particularly difficult due to the substitution options generally available.
Another detail worth a mention is rooted in the meat and seafood space. You see, most meat and seafood products are transformed in store, making ordering subprimals complex. Leveraging Afresh’s approach, a single subprimal can be cut into multiple sellable items, such as steaks, roasts or fillets, meaning sales and inventory depend on how each cut is prepared.
The stated approach also banks upon patent-pending AI models to connect these relationships, linking retailers’ orders with what they sell. An example relaying the same relates to Afresh mapping ribeye steaks and roasts back to their rib subprimal, allowing the system to accurately track inventory, demand, and sales for both to recommend the correct order.
Such an approach makes it possible for retailers to reduce waste, improve profitability, and set the tone for smarter production planning.
Rounding up highlights would be the produce section. Here, random-weight items, such as bananas or melons, make ordering produce tricky due to unreliable inventory data and high perishability. However, in Albertsons Cos.’ produce departments, Afresh’s distinctive approach continues to optimize efficiency, reduce waste, and ensure shelves are stocked with the highest-quality produce.
Founded in 2017, Afresh’s rise up the ranks stems from helping grocers make smarter, fresh decisions, and improving grocers’ bottom lines, while simultaneously reducing food waste on the retail floor. The scale on which company operates can also be understood once you consider it recently partnered with grocers in more than 10,000 store departments and 40 states, including Albertsons Companies, Brookshire Grocery Company, Bashas, Cub Foods, Smart & Final, Meijer, and more.
“Our collaboration with Albertsons Cos. has been foundational to our growth,” said Matt Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of Afresh. “The trust and partnership we have built has allowed us to deliver a comprehensive, department-by-department solution that is truly a first for the industry. This scaled rollout is a testament to Albertsons Cos.’ vision of a modern, sustainable grocery future, with Afresh as the engine of their fresh operations.”
