News Briefs

Brewery company Carlsberg Group is accelerating its order and delivery processes, ensuring products in more than 150 markets arrive to their destinations faster through intelligent process automation.

The technology will allow Carlsberg Group to increase workflow efficiency and improve productivity across its teams. As an example, Carlsberg had to previously manually check and enter mailed orders, but with the new implementation — which captures incoming orders and automatically processes them through the company’s SAP system — Carlsberg will be saving up to eight minutes of manual work per order. In Sweden, this has already resulted in 140-plus hours saved per month and a touchless processing rate of 92%. 

[More Digital Transformations: How ConAgra Drives Supply Chain Transformations With Speed and Visibility]

Additionally, Carlsberg is leaning on intelligent automation for its delivery note scanning, accelerating receiving goods and reusing vendor labels to provide improved visibility of the overall delivery process. Previously, when trucks arrived at warehouses, staff had to manually check delivered products against the delivery note at the warehouse gate. Files were then manually typed into SAP before the goods receipt document could be generated and posted.

The company is partnering with ABBYY’s IDP technology in order to achieve these results as it looks to transform its digital strategy. The platform includes intelligent document processing, process mining, and task mining. Through this, Carlsberg can apply AI to understand documents in a more efficient manner. 

“ABBYY has been instrumental to our execution excellence strategy and enables us to digitally master our data and processes,” said Kamil Kropaczewski, business owner at Carlsberg, in a statement. “Thanks to the integration of ABBYY with our robotic process automation bot, we’re able to speed customer deliveries by improving workflow and team productivity.”

Neil Murphy, global channel chief at ABBYY, said that, too often, manual processes and endless paperwork get in the way of time to value and customer satisfaction. These types of solutions, he said, “means staff can focus on other more business-critical tasks and leave the tedious paperwork to their ‘digital’ colleagues.”

Learn more about the advantages and opportunities surrounding automation in the consumer goods space. 

Sports equipment brand ASICS is transforming its CMS, leveraging modern headless technology with localization capabilities and a more streamlined platform that requires less assistance from developers. 

The company has partnered with Contentstack, joining other brands like Mattel, K2 Sports, and Express, to overhaul its system.

Additionally, ASICS will have access to the Contenstack Community portal, where they can engage with a dedicated tech team that can help share CRM best practices, troubleshoot issues, and connect with groups specifically tailored for app developers and more.

Peter Nealon, vice president of engineering of ASICS Digital, said the company’s previous CRM was older, slower, and more difficult to manage — an overall lack of flexibility. 

"We wanted a tool that allowed us to step out and do things differently than before. By making the switch to Contentstack, we'll be able to provide creative, unique content experiences, and operate with speed and flexibility for years to come,” said Nealon. “We want to provide preeminent digital experiences to our customers and Contentstack will enable us to do that."

Neha Sampat, CEO at Contentstack, said the community enables users to connect, grow, and find the best journey for themselves, helping them to demystify and implement compostable architectures that allow them to move forward faster.

Mike Sullivan has been named SVP and CIO of Post Holdings. 

First reported by Food Business News and confirmed by the company, Sullivan was most recently VP and CIO of Post Holdings’ Bob Evans Farms business, where he spent more than three decades. 

Sullivan was IT employee No. 8 or 9 at Bob Evans when he joined, according to a 2021 interview with CDO Magazine, with his first role operating and managing the company’s data center operations during the age of floppy disks. In the interview, he noted that the company is focused on improving its ability to glean insights from data, as well as ensure they’re acquisition-ready. 

Based in St. Louis, Post Holdings is the No. 95 publicly owned consumer goods company and includes the Post Consumer Brands, Weetabix, Michael Foods and Bob Evans Farms business.

Mars is strengthening its connections with consumers by making its entire portfolio available for same-day delivery through Instacart. 

The company has more than 40 brands in its portfolio, including M&M’s, Snickers, Ben’s Original, and Pedigree, and both its portfolio staples and limited edition products will be available through the service. 

Instacart delivers from over 70,000 stores in 5,500-plus cities, to reach 90% of households in North America, according to Mars. 

Kelly Goering, VP of sales at Mars, noted today’s consumers are turning to digital platforms like Instacart for more choice and convenience. "Our innovative partnership with Instacart enables Mars to continue to reach consumers where they choose to shop," she said. 

Learn how Mars uses spatial analytics to optimize its smart vending machine network in an upcoming webinar. 

Frozen food company Ajinomoto Foods North America is taking steps to improve its on-shelf availability capabilities. 

The frozen food company, which includes such brands as Tai Pei, Ling Ling, and Jose Ole in its portfolio, is expanding its partnership with IRI to leverage its Daily Out-Of-Stock (OOS) Benchmarking tool. The technology is designed to provide CPG manufacturers and retailers with daily OOS views down to key retailer marketing areas and county levels. 

Updates show the stock positions of both Ajinomoto Foods and competitors for key retailers and provides in-stock percentage history, including pre-COVID-19 periods, to allow for promotion forecasting and reporting.

[See also: How NotCo Is Keeping Products On Shelves Without Drowning In Data]

The company was already leveraging IRI’s market measurement solutions and consumer panel information, and Matthew Troyka, marketing director at Ajinomoto Foods North America, said the new tech will enable them to better understand their inventory position and address OOS issues as necessary. 

They’re now also able to see competitive issues and help ensure inventory is on the shelf where demand will spike and is needed most, he added.

Ajinomoto Foods North America operates nine factories and one main office in the United States. It has more than 3,000 employees in North America. 

Nearly 20% of the top product launches of 2021 were frozen meals, according to IRI, which noted that Ajinomoto Foods sales are currently outpacing the frozen snacks category.

Shortly after launching its first portfolio-wide loyalty program, General Mills is tapping TikTok for a new program tying in sustainability. 

Its Nature Valley brand has established a ReTok Shop featuring limited quantities of original products from L.L.Bean, Posted, Stasher, and others — brands chosen as being like-minded regarding sustainability — that were developed in collaboration with creators. 

Consumers who share their sustainable practices on TikTok using the #ReTokForNature hashtag through Sept. 11 have a chance to receive an in-feed promo code they can in turn exchange for an item. 

Kate Herbert, senior brand experience manager of snack bars at General Mills, noted that partnering with TikTok enables the company to reward consumers for “doing good,” and helps them crowd-source new sustainability ideas for families, a particular passion for Nature Valley. 

New items created in collaboration with sustainable TikTok creators will be added to the shop in three phases: Reduce, Reuse, and Recycle. The company is also enlisting dancers and TV hosts Stephen “tWitch” Boss and Allison Holker-Boss to amplify the program. 

Learn more about the Art and Science of Consumer Loyalty at the Consumer Goods Sales & Marketing Summit.