Associated Grocers Moves to New Purchasing System

Associated Grocers Inc. (AG) has chosen HIMPACT, a solution from Herlitz Inventory Management, as its new purchasing system.

“Not only are we thrilled to work with the team at AG, but this is our first time replacing the legacy solution BICEPS,” noted Carl Herlitz, president and CEO of Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Herlitz Inventory Management. “Additionally, we are excited that this is the second ROFDA [Retailer Owned Food Distributors & Associates] organization to license HIMPACT this year, and the third member so far.”

This past February, Herlitz Inventory Management was invited to conduct a two-day deep-dive HIMPACT demo for AG. In advance of the demo, all of AG’s demand data was refreshed so that it included information from the prior week. All vendors, items, POs, promotions and other relevant data were updated, creating a system that was 90% of the way to a complete installation. This enabled Herlitz Inventory Management to provide a highly customized presentation in which actual results were shown in real time, and also demonstrated the speed with which the system could be deployed.

“The HIMPACT solution and the Herlitz team really impressed us,” said Carl Marks, chief administrative officer at Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based AG, a full-service wholesale distributor to more than 200 independent retailers spanning Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. “Not only was their expediency with loading our data impressive, but also their openness to listen to our requirements and adapt their solution, even while in the demo phase. These and other considerations were essential to our decision. Another key point was that HIMPACT has a full [Purchase Order] Management module; whereas other solutions do not.”

Added David Politz, AG’s SVP and CIO: “During our exhaustive research phase, we focused on the unique challenges of buying and forecasting for fresh product lines. Carl Herlitz is committed to providing a solution that excels in the perishables area.”