Festival Foods adopts Upshop's AI tech as part of growth plan

Festival Foods is partnering with grocery tech software company Upshop to upgrade its fresh perimeter and bring “associate efficiency and technology innovation to the forefront,” the tech company announced. 

Upshop said the De Pere, Wisconsin-based independent grocer will use Upshop’s AI-powered forecasting and inventory services to integrate disparate workflows and data streams in areas such as pricing, ingredients, recipes, production plans and made-to-order tasks. 

The new partnership comes in advance of the grocer’s plans to rapidly scale the business. Streamlining ordering processes and other operations  will free up grocery employees to focus on serving customers, the grocer said.  

“At Festival Foods, we are committed to making decisions that further enhance the experience of our associates and our guests,” Festival Foods CEO and President Mark Skogen said in a statement. “This partnership is about removing barriers to execution for our teams and simplifying the complexities of running a fresh department so they can focus on delivering a memorable guest experience.” 

Ken Wicker, Festival Foods’ senior vice president of fresh foods, said the investment is part of the grocer’s efforts to gain a competitive edge in the fresh category “and scale those advantages.” 

“We chose Upshop as our partner because they truly understand our business, the intricacies of fresh foods and the processes required for success,” Wicker said in a statement.  

The software is built to make adoption and operation effortless for store employees, Upshop CEO Shamus Hines said in a statement.  The grocery tech company’s software-as-a-service platform has been adopted by more than 150 retail chains across more than 30,000 stores.  

Festival Foods, which operated under the name Skogen’s IGA from 1946 to 1990, operates 40 supermarkets across Wisconsin and employs more than 8,000 associates. The grocer said in March that it plans to open a new store in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin, sometime this year. 

The grocer also made headlines in March with the announcement it would increase its employee discount to 15% from 10%. That announcement came about a month after West Des Moines, Iowa-based Hy-Vee, which also operates stores in Wisconsin, suspended its 10% employee discount due to fraud.