Foodstuffs South Island Consolidates Operations And Delivers Improved Experience With SAP

Fourteen-month cloud transformation reduces food wastage and enables operational efficiencies

SAP today announced Foodstuffs South Island has gone live with SAP S/4 HANA RISE, enabling the organisation to drive operational efficiencies, transform the member and supplier experience, and better meet its customers’ demand for fresh and affordable groceries.

Foodstuffs South Island is the leading grocery retailer on New Zealand’s South Island, delivering fresh and affordable food to Kiwis across the mainland. From full-service supermarkets to small convenience stores, it operates 200+ stores with more than 14,000+ members and 1,200+ suppliers.

Foodstuffs South Island wanted to move to a modern cloud version of SAP so that it could unlock more business value. Working in partnership with Enterprise Wide, SmartShift and Figaf, it implemented SAP S/4 HAHA RISE with Business Technology Platform (BTP) Services, including SAP Datasphere, Process Integration, and Launchpad Service.

As a result of the transformation, its employees now have access to a single and real-time view of data from across the business that enables them to quickly derive insights on its customers’ preferences and product prices. Machine learning capabilities enabled in SAP United Demand Forecast (UDF) also help it to predict consumer demand for its products, including short-dated products such as fresh produce, which has reduced food wastage and helped to prioritise shelf space for high turnover items.

Its suppliers have also benefitted from the transformation, with vendors empowered to upload and monitor promotions directly into Foodstuffs South Island’s systems, improving overall data accuracy and reducing the time and resources needed from employees to manage retail offers. This has freed up the time of employees to focus on providing value-added services to its customers. Its members now also have access to hand-held technologies connected to SAP where they can do inventory adjustments, pack click and collect orders and review product recommendations proposed through UDF.

Shayne Tong, Chief Digital Officer, Foodstuffs South Island says, “Our people are at the heart of our co-op and our members and suppliers are instrumental to our success – and we see technology as an enabler of improving the experience across all of them.

“By modernising our technology, systems, and tools through SAP, we’ve been able to streamline many aspects of how we work and ensure that we make things easier, simpler and quicker for our workers.

“Our decision to move to a cloud-based retail supply chain model also means we now have the agility to innovate at pace by taking advantage of the latest innovations, providing superior experiences and affordable prices for our customers.”

Adrian Griffin, Managing Director SAP New Zealand says, “The move to SAP RISE marks an important evolution in Foodstuffs South Island’s transformation with SAP and it should be congratulated on an extremely successful and well executed project.

“By turning to the cloud, Foodstuffs South Island is already enabling a data-driven approach to its operations, helping the business pave a path for sustainable future growth and deliver long-term value for its people and customers.

“It’s also enabling it to continue to innovate at pace by leveraging embedded intelligence, real-time insights, and advanced technologies to build business resilience.”

Foodstuffs South Island’s future plans include leveraging SAP’s embedded AI capabilities for improved forecasting and inventory management.

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