Co-op launches the UK’s first dedicated collaboration tool to deliver a single shared view of supply chain performance

Atheon Analytics and Co-op today announce a multi-year collaboration which will deliver daily supply chain insight to the convenience retailer’s entire grocery supplier base from 2 July 2018.

SKUtrak provides grocery suppliers with a single visual reporting and analysis hub for trading performance across the UK’s largest grocery retailers. Over 500 companies already use SKUtrak to identify service issues, understand stock positions and quantify the impact on availability, waste and sales. Engaged SKUtrak users reduce out-of-stock incidents and waste by as much as 80%, saving suppliers and retailers £millions every week. The addition of a dedicated Co-op service is expected to drive the SKUtrak audience to over 1,000 organisations in the next 12 months alone.

SKUtrak operates on a “freemium” business model; a free-for-life visual reporting suite covering the last 28 days (and, later this year, upcoming forecasts), and an optional suite of premium analytical tools spanning two years of trading on a paid-for basis. From 2 July, all Co-op suppliers are able to utilise free SKUtrak dashboards to monitor daily service level, availability and sales; helping Co-op and its supplier collaborate to improve availability for shoppers across the Co-op store estate.

“We are sharing our supplier Flow-of-Goods data, so that we can work better together for customers.” said Richard Ablitt, Head of Supply Chain at Co-op. “I am pleased to announce our long-term collaboration with Atheon Analytics and endorse their SKUtrak platform. Feedback from pilot suppliers has been very positive and we expect to see a significant number using the service within just a few months. The launch service will be impressive in scope, and we are collaborating with Atheon Analytics to use SKUtrak for forecast sharing from October.”

Guy Cuthbert, CEO at Atheon Analytics, said “We are delighted to make this announcement with Richard, and welcome Co-op to the SKUtrak world with immediate effect. Feedback from Co-op supply chain analysts and their supplier counterparts involved in the pilot programme helped us to integrate Co-op data into SKUtrak, ensuring that a seamless visual reporting and analysis experience is maintained across all the grocery retail data sets that we work with. We look forward to welcoming Co-op suppliers to the platform over the coming months, and will be launching further SKUtrak services for their use later in the year, including free daily forecast alerts to highlight upcoming changes in demand.”

About Atheon Analytics

Atheon Analytics, formed in 2005, provides award-winning  visual analytics insight, tools and education to the grocery retail and consumer goods sectors. Its SKUtrak service is the UK’s leading grocery Flow-of-Goods tracker for FMCG suppliers, with over 500 customers using SKUtrak to monitor sales, service and stock levels daily across the UK’s major grocers.

The SKUtrak Free (for life) service allows grocery suppliers to:

• Monitor daily sales, service levels and availability over the past 4 weeks
• Compare performance between their own product categories
• Receive SKU-level alerts on price changes and supply issues

SKUtrak Premium services provide further analytics on a paid-for basis.