With over 110,000 items in its range, its own fleet of trucks to supply around 5,000 customers in the gastronomy and hotel industry, as well as a shopping center in Zams, Eurogast Grissemann is one of Austria's leading gastronomy wholesalers. Accordingly, the processes in materials planning are complex. Numerous perishable products, seasonal fluctuations, special promotions and other influencing factors make planning even more difficult and require a high degree of precision and flexibility. To meet these requirements, Eurogast Grissemann successfully relies on the support of the Dortmund-based software provider REMIRA and its proven sales forecasting and procurement tool. The pleasing result: around 75% less scheduling effort.
The company, based in Zams in Tyrol, has been relying on the REMIRA solution since 2020. The main aim of introducing the software was to digitize and optimize replenishment to simplify processes, reduce inventory in line with demand and be able to act more flexibly overall. Previously, replenishment was still done manually, which was not only time-consuming but also very personnel-intensive. Sixteen product and category managers planned the required quantities of the respective products and ranges by hand every day, using replenishment lists in which all items or SKUs (Stock Keeping Units) were listed together with the supplier to which they belonged. The ERP system used only provided support with rigid item statistics, which only provided rough guidelines for the manual calculation of daily, weekly or monthly requirements. On this basis, the necessary orders were finally derived and forwarded to the appropriate suppliers. “We were, so to speak, the hub for all orders, deliveries and all communication with suppliers. Sick leave in the team was therefore always difficult to compensate for,” reports Dominik Schweisgut, Head of Scheduling at Eurogast Grissemann.
Challenges in order planning and scaling
To counteract, a software solution was needed that would provide precise and reliable forecasts of order times and quantities – while taking into account all company- and industry-specific characteristics. After all, the company, which, along with ten other private gastronomy wholesalers, belongs to Eurogast Austria, is confronted with a high degree of volatility within its product range due to seasonal fluctuations, promotional periods and changing weather conditions. Added to this is the challenge of taking the shelf life of perishable goods into account when planning, and retail products that are purchased by wholesale customers in large quantities are also difficult to scale without suitable software support in terms of order and warehouse quantities. In addition, many orders are often placed well in advance, particularly around the in-house spring and fall trade shows, which in turn lead to excess inventory in the off-season, which must be evaluated for inventory.
In 2020, the company finally decided on REMIRA's sales forecasting and procurement software when searching for a suitable solution.
“REMIRA was able to offer us the best solution for our requirements in close coordination,”
says Dominik Schweisgut, explaining the choice. The tool has now been successfully in use since the end of 2020 - also thanks to the support of REMIRA's implementation partner, ARBOR Management Consulting GmbH, based in Eisenstadt.
Significant efficiency increases in practice
As a result, the way Eurogast Grissemann works has changed fundamentally, and the wholesaler is benefiting from numerous improvements: the software now automatically calculates daily SKU requirements based on past sales data and other information from the existing ERP system, creates short-, medium- and long-term forecasts, and prepares the replenishment proposals in a clearly laid out graphical timeline. The company therefore always receives the right order proposals at the optimum time, with seasonalities and trends, perishability and dynamic safety stocks being automatically taken into account by the REMIRA software. One of the major advantages of this is the key date function, which can be used, for example, to determine the end of a season exactly. This enables the food service wholesaler to react quickly and flexibly to seasonal fluctuations and other developments, and allows it to control defined product ranges with just a few settings. Even if demand changes at short notice, this can be adjusted centrally using intuitive parameters. If desired, the software can also trigger orders independently, further automating and optimizing the entire process.
Time management at Eurogast Grissemann has also improved significantly since the software was introduced. Instead of the original 16-person team, only four employees are now required in the replenishment department. This corresponds to a 75% reduction in effort, while the freed-up capacities provide considerable benefits elsewhere. In addition, demand-based ordering contributes to a noticeable reduction in inventory levels, as markdowns are minimized and valuable resources are conserved. Overall, the food wholesaler has gained significantly in security, which is reflected, among other things, in the avoidance of out-of-stock situations. Furthermore, the entire process has been centralized through the REMIRA tool, which also enables the wholesaler to transfer items between locations. Because the solution has also been in use at Grissemann in Bludenz since the fall of 2023. If, for example, a warehouse takes on the central warehousing function for certain items, the respective requirements are automatically forwarded internally and taken into account – an integration that would have been inconceivable with the previous manual methods.
Distinct road map for the future
Simplified processes, lower resource requirements and a system-optimized, demand-oriented and centralized disposition - the results achieved thanks to the REMIRA solution speak for themselves. Dominik Schweisgut also confirms this:
“The REMIRA software is a noticeable help to us! We can rely on the software for a very high level of security, not only in terms of calculations. Even absences due to holidays and sick days in the scheduling team no longer make us nervous, because the software finally orders automatically. Even for unforeseen events, we are now well prepared.”
Overall, the company draws a very positive conclusion about the REMIRA solution. Strengthened by this success, Grissemann plans to expand the use of the replenishment tool beyond the gastronomy wholesale sector in the future. This is because the company also operates a hagebaumarkt in Zams, which is to be connected to the sales forecasting and procurement software in the next step.
Would you also like to reduce your replenishment costs and stock levels? We would be happy to advise you!
Photos:© D . Kühl
