Albertsons Companies Implements New Technology To Reduce Food Waste

In an effort to reduce food waste and improve inventory turns, Albertsons Companies has rolled out a new predictive ordering and inventory management system across its Albertsons banner stores.

The new system from Afresh Technologies is said to allow Albertsons Cos. to more efficiently anticipate the ever-changing nature of fresh produce, reducing food waste and allowing the grocer to enhance the freshness of products sold in stores. The solution powers Albertsons' forecasting, inventory and store operations, providing department managers with easy-to-use ordering tools that leverage real-time insights.

"Driving sustainability practices across Albertsons Cos. is essential to our business and the communities we serve," said Suzanne Long, chief sustainability and transformation officer at Albertsons Cos. “Our partnership with Afresh helps us improve ordering and better manage our inventory of fresh fruits and vegetables so our customers have access to fresher products, and we’re able to make meaningful progress toward achieving our goal to have zero food waste going to landfill by 2030.”

According to Afresh, grocers utilizing the company’s technology typically see an increase in sales by an average of 3% across their chain while reducing food waste by 25% and significantly improving inventory turns.

The system was deployed in more than 2,200 stores in seven months, far less than the three to five years typically required for large-scale enterprise software implementations in the grocery industry, Afresh officials said.    

"Afresh and Albertsons Cos. have partnered to complete the fastest in-store technology rollout in Albertsons' history and did so across thousands of stores in just months, helping Albertsons’ family of stores realize the transformational value in their fresh produce departments now; not years down the line,” said Matt Schwartz, CEO and co-founder of Afresh.