Southern African discount retailer Boxer is rolling out an AI-based supply chain planning system from Finland-based Relex to more than 300 stores and five distribution centres.

The Relex Living Retail platform can help Boxer implement forecasting and replenishment for stores and distribution centres, improving availability and driving sales across all its activities.

Prior to Relex, Boxer used its own in-house systems to manage this area. However, it saw the opportunity to implement a specialised system to support the company’s rapidly scaling needs. This will automate previously time-consuming processes while driving inventory reduction and improve availability in stores and distribution centres.

Boxer will leverage Relex’s flexibility to manage the needs of approximately 3500 SKUs across its commodity, groceries, butchery, bakery, health and beauty, non-foods, liquor, and DIY categories within a single platform.

“Our mission at Boxer is to make quality products and services available to our shoppers at market leading prices,” said Justin Galloway, group executive at Boxer. “We knew we wanted to invest long-term in a supply chain tool that could automate many of our processes as well as bring about improvements in availability and working capital. Relex will not only drive forecast accuracy and bring in machine learning and AI into the business, but also bring about efficiencies in Boxer’s supply chain planning.”

Jason Berry, vice president at Relex, added: “We’re thrilled to expand for the first time into the South African market, and we’re extremely proud to be doing it with Boxer as our partner. Boxer and Relex share a commitment to translating efficiency and effectiveness into the best possible experience for end consumers. Relex has the depth of experience needed to assist Boxer with its forward momentum and growth as a leading price-point retailer with a large, complex assortment, and we’re eager to get to work with the company’s talented team.”

Relex worked alongside a local implementation partner, HeadByte Retail, which played a key role in the expansion into South Africa.

“We are delighted to work alongside HeadByte and to leverage their local experience, support and investment in delivering business benefits to Boxer and its customers,” said Berry. “Relex’s global partner community is constantly growing and we couldn’t be more excited by this relationship.” 

Relex provides retail optimisation software. The cloud-native Living Retail platform delivers AI across all retail functions and at retail scale, eradicating siloes, rigidities and inefficiencies.

Relex has more than 350 customers including M&S Food, Pets at Home, Waitrose, Booths and Costa Express, and has offices across Europe, North America and the Asia Pacific.