Heinen’s fresh departments have been a pillar of the chain since its founding. Unfortunately, high in-stock rates historically came at the cost of shrink. Heinen’s needed a partner that would help it increase its top-line revenue, reduce shrink, and optimize labor.
Heinen’s found that legacy CAO solutions most often used in fresh departments were built for non-perishable goods and, despite claims to work in fresh, cause excess shrink. These tools require lengthy integration processes, months of testing, and add more manual work because of their design.
Heinen’s rapidly integrated and rolled Afresh out chainwide with no changes to existing systems, minimal change management, and minimal Heinen’s overhead. Heinen’s saw increased sales and reduced shrink almost immediately after implementation. Afresh’s AI was engineered to handle fresh food’s complexities and adapt to unexpected changes and events. With Afresh, Heinen’s maintained high in-stock rates with minimal shrink even in the face of COVID demand spikes.
“Our customers know that they can find the freshest, highest-quality foods and a great assortment at Heinen’s. The partnership with Afresh enables us to continue to deliver on that promise of excellent food and the best in-stock rate.”
Co-CEO of Heinen’s
We’ve seen great results from Afresh. Our store teams love using it, and the return on investment makes it worth it. It’s low maintenance, easy to use, and delivers on its promises.
Co-CEO of Heinen’s
Every other ordering system we've looked into in the past was mainly designed for packaged goods with long shelf life, not fresh products. Afresh is a solution built to handle the nuances of Fresh.
Director of Supply Chain
You could have an experienced 35-year produce veteran or a new manager in training pick up the tool and run with it. From day one, stores gravitate towards Afresh, pick it up, and off they go.
Produce Manager
Afresh enables us to profitably run the fresh department just as we envision it. Ever since we started working with Afresh, our teams have loved the experience, from the ease of use of the app to the accuracy of recommendations. All in all, Afresh has been a very good partner to Heinen’s.
Product Management & Marketing
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