Coles
The challenge
Coles is always looking to deliver great value, fresh, top quality fruit and vegetables to their customers while working smarter to make it easier for their store and supply chain teams. The challenge is to match customer demand to a dynamic and ever changing agricultural supply chain, whilst taking into account variables such as weather events, seasonality, social events, promotions and customers habits and preferences. Before the programme, manual ordering left less than 70% on-shelf availability for customers, which translated into roughly a 5% loss in sales and EBIT.
Our approach
Mulberry partnered with Relex Solutions, a Finnish provider of AI-driven demand forecasting and retail optimisation, and led the programme that embedded it into one of Coles' most complex supply chains. Our role sat squarely in the “enabling the home team” model: we ran the programme, integrated the solution into a complex enterprise technology environment, and led the change management needed to operationalise it, so that Coles' own teams could run the new model rather than depend on us to keep running it.
The measure of that work is what happens after Mulberry steps back. Coles' store and supply chain teams now operate the centralised replenishment model themselves, day to day, with no ongoing dependency on Mulberry or on the vendor relationship we set up on their behalf.
The outcome
The programme delivered an agreed, circa $100 million scope of work, completed in 2022. It replaced manual ordering, which had left on-shelf availability below 70% and cost Coles roughly 5% in lost sales and EBIT, with a centralised, AI-driven replenishment model. The result was better on-shelf availability, fresher produce, reduced waste and simpler, faster processes for Coles' store teams and suppliers, delivered across one of the most complex supply chains in Australian retail.
“Fresh produce presents many unique challenges compared to other parts of the grocery business: shorter shelf life, seasonality, price elasticity, along with the diverse and complex growing seasons and regions we are challenged with in Australia. Using the RELEX solution to centralise the control of the replenishment model allows Coles to provide increased efficiency in one of our most complex supply chains and improve the customer experience through more targeted ranges, improved availability, fresher products, and simpler processes for our team members and our suppliers.”
Kevin Gunn, Executive General Manager, Central Operations and Transformation, Coles
Source: Relex Solutions press release, “Coles partners with RELEX Solutions to reduce food waste.”
