Improving Sales: URM Store’s Journey
URM Stores, a large cooperative serving over 1,000 supermarkets with extensive SKUs and seasonal items, implemented HIMPACT’s forecasting and inventory solution to reduce manual workload and spoilage, resulting in a seamless rollout, a 20% sales increase, maintained inventory levels despite customer growth, and over 98% fill-rate during new customer onboarding.
URM Stores, Inc., based in Spokane, Washington, is a retailers’ cooperative serving over 1,000 independent supermarkets across Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington, with more than $1 billion in sales. It operates a 650,000-square-foot central warehouse and six Cash & Carry locations offering a full range of grocery and foodservice products to stores, restaurants, and similar business operations.
The Need
URM Stores Inc. was founded in 1921 when five retailers banded together to form the corporation. Today, URM Stores Inc. holds 25,000 SKUs plus 20,000 seasonal items, which is managed by 16 buyers. To meet its future performance goals, it was essential for URM to find a solution that could solve their burdensome manual workload and ensure a more accurate forecast to manage its perishables in order to reduce spoilage.
“The team is exceptional. Very little IT support was needed on our side and we had an uneventful go live – the benchmark of a successful implementation.”
— Rich Stuber, VP of Information Technology, URM Stores, Inc.
The Result
Since URM runs promotions to different groups of customers, HIMPACT’s ability to do store and chain level promo filtering was a scale-tipping feature. URM chose HIMPACT because of its cost consciousness, industry expertise, and bottom line improvement. The quick installation and its ability to scale with company growth were also additional benefits.
Upon contract signing, the HIMPACT team converted URM’s data only two days after the initial contract was signed. URM’s buyers were trained a month later, and the new solution was completely rolled out shortly after.
URM quickly realized they made an excellent choice. Inventory levels remained unchanged after adding new customers and they saw an overall increase in sales of about 20%. They also maintained over 98% fill-rate during a critical new customer roll-out. Of URM’s sixteen buyers, six were trained by URM themselves since the HIMPACT roll out. The time required to train all new buyers was half of what it was on their previous solution, resulting in less downtime and a greater boost to productivity.
URM maintained over 98% fill rate during critical new customer roll out.
Inventory levels remained unchanged after adding new customers and saw an overall increase in sales by 20%.
The BFC Difference
BFC Software is a food-focused solutions platform—from forecasting and warehouse operations to the final mile. Designed to evolve with industry demands, BFC helps customers stay ahead with data-driven insights that boost efficiency, improve performance, and optimize operations.
Related
Improving Fill Rates While Streamlining Inventory: Pet Food Expert’s Journey
Pet Food Experts, a leading U.S. pet food distributor with nearly 30 years in the industry, significantly improved its inventory management and fill rates by implementing the HIMPACT® forecasting and purchasing software, which proved crucial during its acquisition of United Pacific Pet and organic growth, resulting in 5–10% inventory reductions and 2–5 percentage point increases in fill rates, earning high praise from company leadership for its ROI and seamless vendor integration.
How Horizon Beverage Met Business Goals & Supports a Growing Team
Horizon Beverage, a leading New England alcohol distributor with a 775-person team, replaced its outdated replenishment system with HIMPACT®, a more functional and user-friendly inventory management solution recommended by trusted expert Carl Herlitz, resulting in improved efficiency, better support, and enhanced ability to meet business goals through features like daily history exceptions that help the buying team quickly respond to sales fluctuations.
How Imperial Distributors Improved Forecasting to Reduce Safety Stock
Imperial Distributors improved their inventory management by implementing the HIMPACT purchasing system, which uses daily, customer order-based forecasts that react quickly to changes, enabling them to reduce safety stock, increase inventory turnover, maintain service levels, and provide a user-friendly experience for their procurement team.
How Génere Food Corp. Reduced Inventory by 49% | BFC Software
Génere Food Corp., a wholesale grocer serving over 600 customers in New England, implemented HIMPACT® software to improve inventory efficiency, resulting in a 16% inventory reduction that freed warehouse space to buy directly from manufacturers, increased customer service by over 6%, and achieved an effective 49% overall inventory reduction while enabling the owner to maintain direct control over purchasing despite rapid company growth.
Forecast Daily, Replenish Smarter: How to Improve Service Levels, Reduce Spoilage, and Increase Profitability
The webinar titled "Forecast Daily, Replenish Smarter" demonstrates how food distributors can enhance service levels, reduce spoilage, and boost profitability by using BFC Replenishment Optimizer to improve daily forecast accuracy and streamline replenishment processes, overcoming challenges like short shelf life and volatile demand that traditional ERP and spreadsheet methods struggle with.
How Chex Finer Foods Beat Their Customer Service Goals By 2%
Chex Finer Foods, a longstanding specialty food distributor, faced challenges meeting a new customer service goal of 92% after hiring new buyers and acquiring a major account, but by partnering with BFC’s HIMPACT team for targeted training and ongoing monitoring of their inventory management system, they successfully improved buyer performance and exceeded their customer service commitment by 2%.