Grocery retailer Lüning, which is part of the Edeka community, is sticking with Remira for sales forecasting and order optimisation and has now upgraded to the latest version of the software. By choosing the Remira solution, the Westphalian family-owned company, in which Edeka Region Minden-Hannover holds a significant stake, is diverting from Edeka Group’s roadmap which has chosen Relex for order optimisation. With the latest version of Remira’s solution, Lüning aims to optimise inventories, particularly for perishable goods and seasonal items, and anticipate fluctuations in demand through promotional campaigns.
Back in 2011, Lüning began automating its previously manual replenishment processes with Remira software and centralising all relevant data. At the beginning of this year, the company completed the move to the latest version of the forecasting and replenisment software. Last year, Lüning had already upgraded to Remira’s cloud-based stocktaking software.
Edeka Minden-Hannover holds a 49 per cent stake in Lüning’s wholesale and retail divisions. The Rietberg-based company operates a total of 31 grocery stores under the ‘Edeka Centre Lüning’, ‘Elli-Markt’ and ‘SB Lüning’ banners. It serves these from two own logistics centres in East Westphalia and Saxony-Anhalt as well as via cross-docking in cooperation with Edeka Minden-Hannover.
AI improves sales forecasts
The Remira software promises precise sales forecasts using algorithms and artificial intelligence. It provides order suggestions based on a variety of factors, such as historical sales figures, seasonal fluctuations and current market trends. This has enabled the retail company to reduce stock levels in a targeted manner while increasing its ability to deliver. Lüning reports that over the past five years, it has increased the degree of automation for order items to over 75 per cent.
Werner Kamppeter, Head of Inventory and Quality Management at Lüning, explains: “Today, we achieve significantly higher order productivity and better results with almost the same number of staff – that speaks in favour of the system.” By now, Lüning has fully automated replenishment of promotional items, based on sales forecasts. The company is also using the system successfully for fresh products. Lüning states that it has been able to reduce markdowns on perishable foods by 35 per cent.
Cloud solution simplifies stocktaking
Lüning also uses Remira software for stocktaking. Last year, the company upgraded to the provider’s cloud solution. This enabled the company to reduce the number of items counted from 630 to 350 compared to the on-premises version.
“The cloud solution has made stocktaking even easier for us and saved us a significant amount of time – after two and a half hours to prepare for stocktaking, the counting teams now count the entire warehouse in just one and a half hours,” explains Thorsten Stühring, Head of Logistics at Lüning.
