Southern Co-op and Scotmid to use new AI-based category planning platform

SymphonyAI, a leader in predictive and generative enterprise AI SaaS, has announced that Southern Co-op and Scotmid have selected SymphonyAI Retail CPG assortment and space planning solutions for implementation across the companies’ nearly 500 managed and franchise convenience stores.

The two businesses, which are both members of Federal Retail Trade and Services (FRTS), a central co-op food buying group, plan to move to the next level through the power of SymphonyAI’s solutions to tailor the assortments, shelves, and floor spaces at both the store and category levels for data-driven alignment with the evolving needs of each store’s local customers.

SymphonyAI’s assortment optimisation generates rapid, customer-centric assortments for each store format, using basket, loyalty, store and shelf space, supply chain, and market data to ensure the right products are available to customers at the right time and place.

The businesses said they expect the SymphonyAI solutions to make it quicker and easier for their food teams to identify and turn valuable insights into macro- and micro-space improvements at a store level.

“The advanced end-to-end range and space platform will be a game changer for us, making it possible to increase our member and customer satisfaction by better aligning and tailoring our product assortments at the SKU level by store with ease by utilizing the AI-driven clustering and product assortment functionality,” said Andrew Farndell, head of trading and format, Southern Co-op.

“This will also improve the efficiency in the central functions with the ability to seamlessly move between modules and workflows when working on ranging or space projects whilst supporting increased on-shelf availability with specific shelf profile and shelf capacity ranging on a store-by-store, fixture-by-fixture basis.”

Mark Smith, Southern Co-op chief executive, added: “I have been particularly impressed by the caliber and commitment of the whole SymphonyAI team. This project is already running as a genuine partnership with our vendor partners using their experience to help accelerate us at real pace to build our new range and space capability.”

Stewart Dobbie, director of Programme Ford, Scotmid, said: “The SymphonyAI team are retail-focused AI expert innovators. The SymphonyAI category planning platform is best-of-breed, and the SymphonyAI team is already bringing new innovations to us on top — an example being their computer vision-based store intelligence.”

John Brodie, Scotmid chief executive, added, "Our core purpose is to serve our local communities and improve people’s everyday lives and SymphonyAI Retail CPG’s new range and space platform will further allow us to deliver on this core purpose.”

Dusan Rnic, senior vice president, international for SymphonyAI Retail CPG, commented: “We are excited to collaborate closely and productively with Southern and Scotmid co-operatives to deliver measurable value as they deploy our leading AI technology to serve customers better, improve efficiencies, and present a consistent and localized shopper experience.

“Southern and Scotmid both anticipate the enormous value of intelligent space-aware assortment, and through our partnership, they can efficiently realize that value. We look forward to strong mutual success for many years to come.”