SAN FRANCISCO, August 18, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Afresh, the first AI-powered fresh food optimization platform for grocers, and Heinen’s, the premier neighborhood grocery store in the Cleveland and North of Chicago areas, today announced a new partnership in which Heinen’s will deploy the Afresh suite of solutions across the chain’s fresh services. Heinen’s will use Afresh in its 23 stores to reduce food waste, improve store profitability and make fresher, healthier food more accessible to its communities.
“Our customers know they can always find the freshest, highest quality foods and the widest assortment at Heinen’s,” said Jeff Heinen, co-CEO of Heinen’s. “Partnering with Afresh allows us to continue to deliver on that promise of the freshest food and the best stock rate. We have always embraced innovation and are delighted to partner with Afresh.
Founded in 1929 as a neighborhood butcher, Heinen’s Fine Foods, with four generations of family ownership, has a premier reputation for high-quality produce in the fresh aisle. By partnering with Afresh, Heinen’s will continue to bring the freshest foods to their communities. Heinen’s has already seen a substantial reduction in product losses and an increase in sales, which has boosted profitability.
Afresh’s AI-powered optimization platform is purpose-built for fresh departments and efficiently supports merchandising, ordering, and store operations solutions. Afresh helps grocers dramatically reduce food waste, increase freshness, and accelerate inventory turns, resulting in increased sales and profitability.
“Afresh allows us to profitably run the fresh department as we envision it,” said Greg Sotka, Head of Category Management and Merchandising at Heinen’s. “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. Our product is fresher and more in stock and we have significantly reduced the overall, Afresh has been an incredible partner for Heinen’s.”
“Grocers like Heinen have an important, but extremely difficult job: feeding millions of mouths on shrinking operating budgets in a brutally competitive industry. We launched Afresh to help them succeed,” said Matt Schwartz, CEO of Afresh. “Heinen’s is known for delighting its loyal customers and we are deeply honored to partner with them to help them be the best when it comes to fresh produce.”
About Afresh® Technologies
Afresh Technologies develops AI-powered solutions that optimize merchandising, ordering and operations for all fresh departments. Afresh significantly reduces food waste, improves the profitability of its partners and makes fresher and healthier food accessible to all. A third of all food is thrown away every year. Afresh is tackling this huge problem that is causing costly losses for grocers and a significant impact on the environment. Its breakthrough technology has resulted in up to 50% reduction in in-store food waste and an additional 3% growth in sales. Afresh is a Series A startup based in San Francisco which was founded by Matt Schwartz, Nathan Fenner, and Volodymyr Kuleshov. They started the business when they were graduate students at Stanford beginning of 2017. Find out more about www.afreshtechnologies.com.
About Heinen
Founded in 1929 in Shaker Heights, Ohio, by a local butcher named Joe Heinen, Heinen’s has grown to 23 total store locations with 19 stores in Cleveland and four stores in the suburbs of Chicago. Heinen’s employs more than 3,500 associates. Today, by Joe Heinen twin grandsons, Jeff and Tom Heinen, continuing the family legacy of unparalleled quality food and world-class customer service. To learn more, connect with Heinen’s at Facebook, Twitter or Heinens.com.
SOURCE New Technologies
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