Associated Wholesale Grocers Forms Partnership With IRI
Associated Wholesale Grocers Inc. (AWG) and IRI, a provider of Big Data and predictive analytics, have formed a strategic partnership to launch AWG Partner Gateway, a portal to enable integrated and seamless collaboration between AWG members and their vendor partners using IRI Liquid Data technology.
AWG is the nation’s largest cooperative food wholesaler to independently owned supermarkets, serving more than 1,100 member companies and 3,200-plus locations throughout 28 states from nine wholesale divisions.
“Our members represent more than $23 billion in retail sales, making the collective cooperative the sixth-largest supermarket group in the United States,” said David Smith, president and CEO of Kansas City, Kan.-based AWG. “Our mission is to provide our member-retailers all of the products, tools and services they need to compete favorably in all markets served. With IRI’s expertise, data access and advanced technology, AWG is empowering our members and vendor partners to leverage data and analytics as strategic differentiators for improved growth and profitability, and to further achieve our mission.”
By automating and connecting the key forms that vendors use to communicate and sell to AWG, and automating reporting to AWG vendor partners, the AWG Partner Gateway will help drive organizational and operational productivity, reduce overall collaborative costs to serve, and provide standardized reports, category management and execution analytics, long-term demand forecasting, and automated processes based on AWG’s “one source of truth” database.
“IRI is thrilled to be bringing a highly customized solution – rooted in advanced technology and our unparalleled data access – to the important independent retailer and wholesaler markets in partnership with AWG,” said Wei Lin Wong, president of global retail and strategy at Chicago-based IRI. “The AWG Partner Gateway creates a best-in-class program to help AWG provide their vendor partners and members with accurate, real-time and actionable insights driven by the most representative wholesale distributor data available.”
The AWG Partner Gateway will roll out in multiple phases, beginning in the second quarter of 2022. Phase 1 will leverage AWG’s order and shipment data to provide AWG’s merchants and vendor partners with standardized data, reporting, analytics and insights, and create differentiated capabilities in assortment optimization, planning and forecasting, and workflow automation. Phase 2 and beyond will provide AWG members with visibility into local competitive market insights as well as the ability to integrate point-of-sale data for competitive differentiation and further localization.
In addition to its cooperative wholesale operations, AWG operates subsidiary companies that provide specific real estate and supermarket development services, print and digital marketing services, health and beauty care, general merchandise, pharmaceutical products, specialty foods, and natural and organic products.
