RELEX’s Rapid Expansion Continues to France, Italy and Spain

Makers of the world’s most powerful supply chain systems company opens 8th and 9th international offices.

Strong demand for cutting-edge supply chain planning software has led RELEX to open two additional international offices and forge a new distribution partnership as business growth in Southern Europe’s economies strengthens.

RELEX has launched its Italian operations in Venice where it now has six members of staff led by Jarno Martikainen. Before joining RELEX, Martikainen was responsible for establishing and running a SaaS-business at Elisa, a Finnish telco. He also has an impressive track record of international system sales positions with Nokia Networks and NSN across Europe and Asia.

His team has established a presence for RELEX in Italy since February by meeting retailers and participating in industry events. The team will take part in Richmond Retail Business Forum 13th-14th of June in Gubbio.

“From the initial communication with the Italian retailers we sense that there is a concrete demand for an advanced retail planning solution like RELEX in the Italian market,” Martikainen says. “We’re excited as we are already feeling that the initial interest is turning into great collaborative working relationships.”

From the initial communication with the Italian retailers we sense that there is a concrete demand for an advanced retail planning solution like RELEX in the Italian market.

RELEX’s French office opens in May in the northern industrial hub of Lille and brings the number of countries with a RELEX office to nine along with the US, UK, Germany, Sweden, Norway and Denmark and its Helsinki, Finland headquarters.

Under the command of David Ritel, Country Manager, France, RELEX opens up Europe’s third largest economy as a market for its demand forecasting and inventory optimization solutions. Ritel has more than 20 years of experience in managing sales and delivery of software solutions on the retail market.

“In France one must work hard to prove to the market that what you offer is the best. But RELEX is unquestionably the most powerful solution available and initial reactions to what we offer have been very positive,” Ritel says.

In France one must work hard to prove to the market that what you offer is the best. But RELEX is unquestionably the most powerful solution available and initial reactions to what we offer have been very positive.

 

Meanwhile in Spain RELEX is unveiling a new partnership with Forecast Solutions, a process management and automation company specializing in supply chain planning and optimization. RELEX and Barcelona-based Forecast Solutions are already discussing with local retailers and the partnership has received increased interest in the Spanish market.

“We’re very excited to have been given the chance to be RELEX’s Spanish distributor,” says Anna van Ginkel, Co-founder and CEO of Forecast Solutions. “It allows us to expand our product range and offer an amazing solution that will be particularly important for large retail chains.”

We’re very excited to have been given the chance to be RELEX’s Spanish distributor. It allows us to expand our product range and offer an amazing solution that will be particularly important for large retail chains.

“We are ourselves developers of SCM software and understand how complex supply chain management can be, so I speak as someone who knows when I say that RELEX’s enormous power, its intelligent design and its exceptional versatility are simply a marvel. You only have to see it in action to appreciate it.”

Group CEO and Co-founder of RELEX, Mikko Kärkkäinen, is equally excited by the move. “At the moment it feels like we have a degree of momentum that is quite exhilarating,” he says. “Moving into Southern Europe is a wonderful challenge and a great opportunity. RELEX is a company that will certainly seize both.”

“And I suspect we’ll have no shortage of enthusiastic volunteers from Helsinki wanting to help on implementation projects in Italy, France and Spain, especially in the middle of the Finnish winter,” he adds wryly.