Crisp's Acquisition in U.K. Expands Global Retail Reach
Crisp, a collaborative commerce platform for retail data, has acquired two separate entities: Atheon Analytics (SKUtrak) and ClearBox Analytics (ClearView). Both companies are based in the United Kingdom and connect supply chain data across major retail chains and their consumer packaged goods (CPG) suppliers. Similar to Crisp, SKUtrak helps CPGs and other retailer vendors improve their business with actionable demand intelligence. ClearBox, founded by experts in retail and analytics, enhances visibility into grocery retail, foodservice and supply chain performance for some of the largest CPG brands in the world.
Founded with a mission to “humanize data” from grocery retailers to reduce waste and improve product availability, Atheon Analytics’ “SKUtrak” platform provides SKU-level data to CPG brands selling through Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Morrisons, Waitrose and other major U.K. retail chains. With the acquisition of Atheon, Crisp bolsters its capabilities to cover U.K.-based retail channels and increases global visibility for multinational manufacturers.
[PODCAST: Data Makes the Grocery World Go Round]
ClearBox Analytics has expertise in combining ERP data, trade spend data and retailer data. The acquisition of ClearBox extends Crisp’s capabilities into the commercial foodservice sector and gives Crisp customers expanded dashboard reporting capabilities designed for broader supply chain and C-suite reporting. ClearBox customers include leading global brands such as KraftHeinz and Nestlé.
“Acquiring Atheon and ClearBox advances Crisp’s goal of providing CPG brands with all the data and actionable insights they need to grow sales and build relationships with their retail partners,” said Are Traasdahl, founder and CEO of Springdale, Ark.-based Crisp. “These mission-driven companies both share our commitment to reducing food waste and optimizing supply chains through better collaboration. When brands and retailers share the same clean, real-time data, it empowers them to identify out-of-stocks and overstocks, and direct products to where they are needed to immediately reduce waste and create a positive double bottom line – good for the business and the environment.”
The acquisitions bring more than 120 U.K. and multinational customers onto the Crisp platform.
“This deal and Crisp’s expansive access to point-of-sale data will allow our customers to bring together their own first-party data along with third-party and store-level insights to gain a holistic view of their business performance in the U.K. and in the U.S.,” said ClearBox Analytics CEO Mark Smith. “Our grocery retail and foodservice customers will benefit from unprecedented access to real-time data to efficiently manage their supply chains, improve business outcomes and reduce waste.”
“Crisp shares our passion for optimizing grocery supply chains, and given the strong strategic alignment in our business models, this deal creates new opportunities to apply our technology and enhance the offering to our customers in the U.K. and beyond,” said Atheon CEO Guy Cuthbert. “Our SKUtrak technology, truDemand engine and access to data from leading U.K. retailers will enhance the retail analytics capabilities for Crisp customers globally.”
Crisp’s other acquisitions of Shelf Engine, Atlas, Lumidata and SetSight allow the company to provide CPG brands with visibility into data and insights to optimize supply chain operations across major retail channels in the United States and the United Kingdom. Expanded data access and dashboard reporting capabilities allow Crisp customers to optimize operational performance and capture every sale across thousands of store locations and in foodservice.
Terms of the Atheon Analytics and ClearBox Analytics deals were not disclosed.
