Åhléns Looks to RELEX for Supply Chain Transformation

Iconic Swedish retailer targets better visibility, higher availability and lower inventory.

Leading Swedish department store chain Åhléns has signed a deal to use RELEX Solutions’ pragmatic AI-driven software to take its retail planning to the next level.

RELEX and Åhléns will focus on the chain’s main business areas – home, beauty and fashion offered throughout its 57 stores and online channel.

Åhléns’ overarching goals are to make its planning processes and KPI monitoring more effective, as well as to improve its forecasting and replenishment. This, in turn, will reduce inventory while increasing inventory turnover, improve availability levels, shift colleagues’ time from routine re-ordering to more value-adding tasks for the customer and improve collaboration both internally and externally.

The implementation of the new solution began at the end of April with a specification phase. The project team is working towards a go live date in the autumn of 2019.

“RELEX has built a formidable reputation for retail planning technology and expertise,” says Åhléns’ CIO, Ola Toresten. “We were impressed by what they achieved at our [Axel Johnson Group] sister company, KICKS, so we are looking to RELEX to weave their knowledge together with ours to deliver the same impressive results.”

Our future rests on being able to provide an unrivalled customer experience, and RELEX will play a critical role in that.

“Today’s department stores have to go above and beyond for their customers. Our future rests on being able to provide an unrivalled customer experience, and RELEX will play a critical role in that.”

“We want to help ensure that the efficiency and accuracy in all planning processes is improved significantly, with a high degree of automation and proactivity,” says RELEX’s Business Development Consultant, Joakim Hellman.

About Åhléns
The family business Åhléns was founded in 1899 in Insjön and is today one of Sweden’s strongest brands, with 57 department stores in Sweden and e-commerce at ahlens.se. Åhléns is the department store that offers a smart mix of affordable products in an inspiring, simple and easily accessible way. Åhléns has a turnover of SEK 4.8 billion and each year their 3,000 skilled employees receive approximately 80 million visits. Åhléns is a part of the retail concern Axel Johnson AB.

More information: www.ahlens.com