SAN FRANCISCO — Afresh Technologies, the world’s leading fresh food technology company, has announced the expansion of its flagship built-for-fresh solution from produce into other fresh departments including meat, seafood, deli, and foodservice to start. Afresh is a holistic, AI-powered platform designed to optimize store ordering and operations by providing intelligent recommendations and streamlined ordering and inventory workflows. To date, Afresh customers have seen transformational benefits in their produce departments, including an average 3% sales lift and 25% shrink reduction – amassing to a collective 31 million pounds of food waste prevented so far. Current customers including CUB, Fresh Thyme, and Heinen’s have signed on for the expansion of Afresh into other core fresh departments.
“We are thrilled to be launching our meat, seafood, deli, and foodservice products this year,” said Matt Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of Afresh. “After proving our ability to add value in thousands of stores in produce, we have been overwhelmed by demand to launch the Afresh platform in other fresh departments. We are taking the same approach of bringing easy-to-use, AI-powered tools to these historically underserved, strategically critical departments.”
Unlike traditional inventory management systems that require perfect data, the Afresh platform helps grocers make smarter decisions with inherently error-prone fresh data. As such, Afresh doesn’t require fresh departments to adopt arduous labor practices to fruitlessly correct data inputs. Instead, the platform expects and plans for uncertainty to direct human attention only to the most valuable activities.
Insights and order recommendations are presented in digital workflows that are efficient and easy to learn for employees of any tenure, from the most seasoned managers to brand-new employees. These intuitive workflows, developed after shadowing best practices across core fresh departments, have a 94% adherence rate, resulting in faster inventory turns, lower shrink, and higher customer satisfaction.
This user-centric approach will prove particularly useful as the Afresh platform expands to the meat department. In a recent report, 48% of US retailers said the meat department presents the biggest challenges of all fresh categories for the year ahead (source: 2023 Supermarket News Retailer). With Afresh, store teams can save time by placing pre-filled orders for packaged fresh products with longer shelf lives like bacon. They can also increase order accuracy with intelligent recommendations for high-value, hyper-perishable items like fresh poultry, boosting in-stock rates and profits while reducing labor overhead.
CUB, Minnesota’s largest grocer, is one of several Afresh customers planning to expand the solution to other core fresh departments. “Afresh has been an incredibly supportive and proactive partner as we’ve implemented their produce solution across all of our corporate stores,” said Luke Anderson, CIO of CUB. “Having a lightweight, fully comprehensive solution that connects across other fresh departments should unlock even more benefits for our customers and store teams.”
About Afresh
Afresh is the world’s leading fresh technology company, creating comprehensive and intelligent AI-powered solutions that are revolutionizing grocery’s fresh food supply chain. Afresh is changing the game by helping grocers make smarter, built-for-fresh decisions, and improving grocers’ bottom lines while reducing food waste on the retail floor. Founded in 2017 with the mission to eliminate food waste and make fresh food accessible to all, Afresh is proudly serving national and regional grocery brands across the US. Today, Afresh has announced partnerships with grocers in more than 3,000 stores and 40 states, including Albertsons, Heinen’s, Save Mart, Bashas, Cub Foods, and more. Learn more at www.afresh.com.
