Leading Swiss retailer expands Blue Yonder Category Management to its DIY brand division, Jumbo, optimizing store operations, space management, and assortment planning
Faced with rapidly changing consumer behavior, supply chain disruptions, and inflationary pressures, retailers must make swift decisions to meet customer demand. That's why the Coop Group, a leading retailer in Switzerland and a current Blue Yonder customer, has expanded its deployment of Blue Yonder Category Management to also include Jumbo, Coop's chain of Do It Yourself (DIY) superstores. This initiative builds upon the company's existing use of Blue Yonder Category Management within the Coop supermarkets network, which dates back to 2018. The expansion was implemented by Strategix, a Blue Yonder partner.
Coop has a history spanning over 160 years. The retailer began as a small consumer cooperative and is now an international retail and wholesale business. In 2024, Coop recorded revenue of 34.9 billion Swiss Franc (approximately $40 billion USD). With around 97,000 associates, Coop operates through a network of retail formats that include more than 2,400 points of sale, as well as online sales channels.
"Coop acts with a deep sense of responsibility towards its people, regions, and ecosystems, and we are committed to delivering both quality and a diverse range of brands and products we can be proud of," said Alexander Senft, head of IT Merchandise Management Masterdata, Coop. "Category management excellence is vital for providing value to our customers, which is why we were excited to extend our collaboration with Blue Yonder and Strategix. Expanding the deployment of Blue Yonder Category Management to include Jumbo's 125 points of sale underscores our dedication to innovation and focus on our demand-driven strategy, ensuring we continue to effectively meet the evolving needs of our customers."
With Blue Yonder Category Management, Coop has achieved a significant milestone in optimizing space planning for its supermarket network, particularly for meat products and fresh bread where the Blue Yonder solution generates approximately 5,700 planograms automatically each year. This innovative space planning solution enables planograms to be tailored to the specific needs of each store while adhering to the requirements of each category. Coop plans to further expand automated planograms into other product groups to further increase efficiency.
Some of the other benefits Coop has seen thanks to Blue Yonder Category Management include:
- Optimized operations: Coop can quickly optimize available inventory with fully automated processes, allowing category managers to focus on more strategic tasks.
- Informed decision-making: Coop can make informed choices on product assortment and placement using valuable data-driven insights based on shopper behavior and demand.
- Enhanced customer experience: Coop can tailor assortments to meet store-specific customer requirements at every point of sale, boosting satisfaction and loyalty through more targeted experiences.
- Increased profitability and sustainability: Coop can optimize assortments through automated planograms to better align product offerings with consumer preferences to drive sales, reduce waste, and support sustainable practices.
"Thanks to Blue Yonder Category Management, a key advantage of automated planogram creation is the efficient integration of new products into store shelf planning. This capability allows us to plan exactly where new items will be placed and determine the appropriate stock levels for each store. As a result, we can now establish the initial quantities needed for orders, streamlining the introduction of new products across the supply chain. In addition, the solution leverages sales data to optimize product placement and quantity on shelves, enhancing the overall efficiency and value of the stocking process," said Senft.
"We take pride in our long-term collaboration with the Coop Group and are excited they chose to extend their category management footprint for their DIY division with us," said Fredrik Prada, vice president, Retail EMEA, Blue Yonder. "Our Category Management solution provides Coop with the necessary speed and agility to keep up with customer demand and constant industry changes so they can stay ahead of their competition and meet business goals."
Additional Resources:
- Learn more about Blue Yonder solutions for grocery and convenience stores
- Learn more about Blue Yonder solutions for retail planning and category management
About Coop Group
The Coop Group operates in the retail as well as wholesale and production sectors. In the retail sector, Coop operates supermarkets and various specialist formats in Switzerland. The Coop Group is the market leader in many of these formats. In wholesale, the Coop Group operates in Germany, Poland, Romania, Spain, France, Austria and Switzerland through Transgourmet. In the production sector, the internationally active Bell Food Group is the biggest company in the Coop Group. In addition to the Bell Food Group, the Coop Group also operates other manufacturing companies in Switzerland.
The Coop Group can look back on a history of over 160 years and has always been structured along cooperative lines. At the organizational level, it is divided into six regions and has some 2.59 million cooperative members. For the Coop Group, the focus is on the customers. The company gears all its efforts to their needs. As a cooperative, the Coop Group does not strive to maximize profits and reinvests its profits in the company, e.g. in lower prices or its commitment to sustainability. This enables it to plan and invest sustainably over the long term.
About Strategix
Strategix is a boutique consulting company that has implemented most space and category management solutions and processes within Central and Eastern Europe for the past 20 years. Recognized as the Best Category Management Consulting Firm in 2021, Strategix provides highly qualified expertise thanks to its consultants' tenures averaging over ten years. Strategix works closely with 15 of the top 30 retailers in Europe. In addition, its one-stop consulting shop provides customers with system implementation and integration, training and a mobile application to secure the last mile in Category Management. In 2024 and 2025 Strategix has received the Top Service Award by the German Institute for Digitization and Sustainability. https://www.strategix.de/en/
About Blue Yonder
Blue Yonder is the AI company for supply chain. As the world leader in end-to-end digital supply chain transformation, Blue Yonder offers a unified, AI-driven platform and multi-tier network that empowers businesses to operate sustainably, scale profitably, and delight their customers-all at machine speed. A pioneer in applying AI solutions to the most complicated supply chain challenges, Blue Yonder's modern innovations and unmatched industry expertise help more than 3,000 retailers, manufacturers, and logistics service providers confidently navigate supply chain complexity and disruption. blueyonder.com
"Blue Yonder" is a trademark or registered trademark of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. Any trade, product or service name referenced in this document using the name "Blue Yonder" is a trademark and/or property of Blue Yonder Group, Inc. All other company and product names may be trademarks, registered trademarks or service marks of the companies with which they are associated.
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