Constellation Wines Deploys Space Management Tools

Constellation Wines U.S. has implemented new assortment-planning software to improve the customer-centric assortments, planograms and merchandising operations of the retailers it serves.

The company is using two modules of the Apollo Space Management Suite from global provider Aldata Solution, Inc., a collection of software products designed to help manufacturers and retailers optimize the performance of retail shelf space to improve category performance and shelf reach.

"Managing the complexity of the wine category and addressing the retail customer's demand for a more personalized shopping experience is a critical issue, particularly in today's difficult economy," said Dale Stratton, VP of strategic insights for Canandaigua, N.Y.-based Constellation. "Aldata's Apollo solutions enable the creation of a customer-based method of planning and product merchandising for the whole wine industry that easily addresses the intricacies of wine industry needs and enhances the retail experience for the consumer while driving wine sales growth and profitability."

Constellation is using the Apollo Designer Workstation to elevate strategic collaboration with retail customers by leveraging automated space planning optimization. It combines assortment, capacity, and merchandising rules to generate hundreds of unique optimized planograms. The module enables retailers to customize product selection and shelf presentation at the store level to maximize sales.

The Apollo Professional module provides suppliers and retailers with customizable capabilities to analyze space performance, create planograms, visualize category and assortment strategies, and manage large planogram databases, and serves as a foundation for Apollo Designer Workstation.