Afresh offers inventory management solution for grocers

Afresh Technologies, a San Francisco-based fresh food technology company, has launched an inventory management solution that it says transforms ordering and inventory management across grocers' fresh departments with intelligent and connected solutions purpose-built for the complexities of fresh food.

Afresh inventory management minimizes the time and cost of taking ending inventory for customers like Fresh Thyme and Heinen’s, delivering accurate financials while pairing with Afresh store ordering to save teams time and drive higher profits, according to a news release.

“For grocers today, maintaining inventory accuracy can be even more challenging than predicting demand because of factors like perishability,” Matt Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of Afresh, said in the release. “Our fresh-first inventory management solution drives unparalleled inventory accuracy in fresh departments with minimal labor. This powers better orders, fresher food, lower shrink, and more effective e-commerce operations.”

While ending inventory is a business-critical step to ensure correct financials around shrink and store performance, it's a costly and labor-intensive process that involves taking a count of every item outside of store hours, traditionally using a scanner and paper inventory guide, the release said.

Afresh says its platform saves teams time and increases accuracy using intelligent apps that allow multiple users to take inventory simultaneously and alert users in real time of suspected errors. Corporate teams also gain access to a web portal to review automatically generated, store-specific inventory guides and validate ending inventory results.

Afresh customers have seen an average time savings of 31% on their next order after taking ending inventory, the release said.

Warrensville Heights, Ohio-based Heinen's is currently using Afresh inventory management alongside store ordering and seeing significant results, the release said.

“Because it’s so intuitive, our associates didn't fight change, and they recognized the benefits of the shrink and the labor efficiencies,” Rick Fink, vice president of supply chain for Heinen’s, said in the release. “The training time to bring them up and running was unbelievably short.”

Founded in 2017 with the mission to eliminate food waste and make fresh food accessible to all, Afresh serves national and regional grocery brands across the U.S. It has partnered with grocers in more than 3,000 stores and 40 states, including Albertsons Cos., Heinen's, Bashas', Cub Foods and more, the release said.