Albertsons Cos. Taps IRI for Supply Chain Services

Data analytics provider IRI has expanded its relationship with Albertsons Cos. to provide supply chain services to the company’s retail banners--including Albertsons, Safeway, Vons and Jewel-Osco--in addition to being its preferred partner for point-of-sale data, consumer panel insights and strategic growth initiatives to support joint business collaboration.

Under the agreement, Albertsons Cos. will integrate its supply chain data, including inventory and transactional shipment data, into the IRI Liquid Data and Unify visualization platform, which incorporates extensive product movement and causal data, work flow capability and real-time data visualization. The platform is designed to help Albertsons Cos. and its suppliers collaborate more easily and make better decisions to benefit customers.

“We feel that there is real power and efficiency in connecting insights from our store shelves all the way back into the collective supply chain,” says Amanda Martinez, group VP of corporate procurement for Albertsons Cos. “This expanded agreement with IRI will allow us to collaborate in a more meaningful and real-time manner with our suppliers. We believe it will help us to provide more of what our customers want no matter when or how they shop.”

Albertsons Cos. operates more than 2,200 grocery stores across 33 states and the District of Columbia. The company selected IRI because of its focus on growth, the power of integrating with category and shopper data in easy-to-use applications, proprietary purchase propensity modeling at the store and household levels, prescriptive analytics and the quality of its people, according to company officials.

“It has been terrific to partner with Albertsons Companies during the past year, and we are thrilled to expand on our relationship to include supply chain services,” says Andrew Appel, president and CEO for IRI. “Our alliance provides access to a unique combination of rich data, advanced analytics and a unified technology platform that will help Albertsons and its suppliers better understand and drive consumer experiences, making consumers’ lives easier and improving sales.”