Pets at Home, travel retailer Avolta and Morocco-based supermarket chain Label’vie, shared how they are deploying Relex’s supply chain and retail planning solutions to optimise operations at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show Europe.
Francesca Porta, regional IT director EMEA South & global gead of IT strategy at Avolta, said her company had been using Relex forecasting and replenishing tools since 2023 with the aim of improving product availability in an unpredictable trading environment and the tech had been introduced to its central warehouse in Italy as part of a digital transformation project.
Porta said there had been visible results in the supply chain: forecast accuracy had improved and the retailer was better able to allocate resources. The service level had improved to 99.2% availability and Avolta was able to reduce excess stock and food waste.
Hafid Hadni, executive vice president at Label’vie, said Relex solutions had been instrumental in managing fresh products, which the company is famous for in Morocco.
Hadni said Label’vie has been able to reduce the lead time between the supplier and client, gaining on waste and the freshness of the product. The tech also enabled the business to manage prices at the end of the day and reduce prices if necessary.
“Relex helps us manage the complexity of fresh produce,” he told delegates.
For Mariusz Kwiatkowski, head of demand and fulfilment transformation at Pets at Home, improving the level of on-shelf availability was the biggest objective for a retailer with a large product portfolio and limited storage and space.
“AI helps. It is faster and more accurate than humans, especially for slow moving products and allows us to have a tailored approach,” he said.
Agility is also important and the Relex operating model enables the business to change without major reconfigurations, Kwiatkowski added.
Despite the hype around AI, Relex does deliver results, Kwiatkowski said.
“Our product availability is consistently better than ever without flooding stores with surplus stock and has reduced the stock in our warehouses at the same time and has enabled other cost savings,” he said.
Like Porta, Kwiatkowski said the tech enables Pets at Home’s to manage unpredictable and unexpected events.
“It’s the equivalent of a Swiss arm knife that adapts to changes,” he said.
Hadni agreed. “A good manager needs to be able to react but without losing the whole picture,” he said.
All three retailers plan to extend the use of the Relex tool box in future. For Avolta and Label’vie that will be in promotion planning, development planning and a non-food roll out respectively. For Pets at Home, the aim is to use the demand forecast for strategic decisions.
“If we know the demand at our warehouse and in stores, we can use it to plan or workforce,” Kwiatkowski said.
