Heinen’s: High revenue, fresh-forward stores

Heinen’s fresh departments have been a pillar of the chain since its founding. Unfortunately, high in-stock rates historically came at the cost of shrink. Heinen’s needed a partner that would help it increase its top-line revenue, reduce shrink, and optimize labor.

Cleveland-based Heinen’s Grocery Store is a cherished member of its communities with a leading reputation for providing a wide assortment of high-quality products. This commitment to quality has nourished a loyal base of customers for nearly a century. Generations of families have gone to Heinen’s for their local produce, meat, and dairy and exceptional customer service.

“We’ve seen great results from Afresh. Our store teams love using it, and the return on investment makes it worth it. It’s low maintenance, easy to use, and delivers on its promises.”

— Tom Heinen, Co-CEO of Heinen’s

The false promises of legacy systems

Heinen’s found that legacy CAO solutions most often used in fresh departments were built for non-perishable goods and, despite claims to work in fresh, cause excess shrink. These tools require lengthy integration processes, months of testing, and add more manual work because of their design.

“Every other ordering system we’ve looked into in the past was mainly designed for packaged goods with long shelf life, not fresh products. Afresh is a solution built to handle the nuances of fresh.”

— Rick Fink, Director of Supply Chain

Easy integration and rapid rollout

Heinen’s rapidly integrated and rolled Afresh out chainwide with no changes to existing systems, minimal change management, and minimal Heinen’s overhead. Heinen’s saw increased sales and reduced shrink almost immediately after implementation. Afresh’s AI was engineered to handle fresh food’s complexities and adapt to unexpected changes and events. With Afresh, Heinen’s maintained high in-stock rates with minimal shrink even in the face of COVID demand spikes.

Heinen’s produce managers of all experience levels quickly learned how to use the app for day-to-day ordering. Afresh also lets store associates provide feedback to the system if either an order recommendation or inventory count seems incorrect. This helps improve order accuracy, which in turn builds trust and better adherence to process.

“You could have an experienced 35 year produce veteran or a new manager in training pick up the tool and run with it. From day one, stores gravitate towards Afresh, pick it up, and off they go.”

— Dan Haverlock, Produce Manager

Transformational results driven by a fresh-first approach

97% NPS

With Afresh, Heinen’s was able to do what most grocers can’t: grow revenue and margin by reducing shrink. Heinen’s has been able to streamline its ordering process for all its stores, and produce managers love using the Afresh digital order guide. Implementing Afresh has allowed Heinen’s to keep its focus on providing the winning experience that keeps its communities healthy, happy, and coming back for more.

“Afresh enables us to profitably run the fresh department just as we envision it. Ever 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. All in all, Afresh has been a very good partner to Heinen’s.”

— Greg Sotka, Product Management & Marketing