{"id":4484,"date":"2021-02-15T12:56:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-15T12:56:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/?p=4484"},"modified":"2021-02-17T10:58:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-17T10:58:22","slug":"vintners-distributors-boosts-business-processes-with-pdi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/2021\/02\/15\/vintners-distributors-boosts-business-processes-with-pdi\/","title":{"rendered":"Vintners Distributors boosts business processes with PDI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>Vintners Distributors, a branded retailer of fuels operating in California, is benefiting from its deployment of a range of business solutions from PDI Software bolstering its reporting capabilities, improving its commercial processes and enhancing its merchandising and marketing strategies.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The year was 1978. As political unrest overseas slowly inched the US to the precipice of a second oil crisis, a fledgling family company was making its entry into the fuel industry with a single Arco convenience store. Since its days as a start-up in Oakland, California, Vintners Distributors has thrived as both a jobber and retailer. These days, the company operates a fleet of tankers and a chain of 133 c-stores throughout The Golden State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Despite its considerable success, Vintners isn\u2019t resting on its laurels. Over the last few years, it\u2019s been rolling out its Loop Neighborhood Markets featuring a modern design, high-end food products and the latest technology.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A PDI Success Story: Vintners Distributors, Inc.\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/s_Ki-S--o_g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cIn addition to providing great customer service and competitive pricing, as the market continues to move in the direction of fresh and organic foods, we want to be a leader,\u201d said Raman Goyal, Vice President of Vintners. \u201cAlthough we still have the normal c-store products, we want to begin competing with businesses in the upscale foods market.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>Business challenge<br><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>While some of the industry is only discovering the benefits of item-level inventory, Vintners has been doing it since 1991. In fact, by 1997 all of its stores were item-level. However, even with a progressive corporate vision, technological limitations presented considerable impediments to success. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe point of sale (POS) at some of our stores didn\u2019t integrate with the back office as well as we would\u2019ve liked,\u201d said Goyal. \u201cConsequently, among other things, the scan data was sometimes inaccurate, which made it difficult to calculate weighted average cost (WAC).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>In addition, Goyal says the reporting capabilities in Vintners\u2019 previous software system left a lot to be desired. \u201cIt was quite difficult to examine long-term sales trends because the data would only go back so far,\u201d he said. \u201cThe reporting limitations also made it challenging to pinpoint out-of-stocks, overstocks or vendor cost discrepancies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Vintners was also struggling with the lack of a centralized pricebook. \u201cAll the retails and costs were controlled at the site, not the home office. As one would expect, this created issues with accuracy and consistency,\u201d Goyal states.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>When it comes to item-level inventory, few things are more important than a reliable handheld solution. \u201cWe needed something that would simplify the receiving and auditing processes while making them more efficient and accurate,\u201d said Goyal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>PDI solution<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>One of the primary obstacles to the success of Vintners\u2019 item-level inventory program was its pricebook. PDI Pricebook, a key component of the PDI Enterprise retail solution, was just what the company was looking for. Its centralized electronic control of site-level pricing and vendor costs allowed the retailer to ensure consistency at every site.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cPDI Pricebook is a huge part of our day-to-day operation,\u201d said Goyal. \u201cAside from improving our process for updating retail prices and providing exception management for vendor costs, PDI designed the pricebook to integrate with practically any kind of POS device. With that type of data integrity, our WAC calculations are much easier and more reliable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Next, Vintners implemented PDI Store Assistant, a mobile handheld solution that improves store-level merchandising productivity and accuracy. \u201cThe handheld is great, especially for retailers trying to maximize the benefits of item-level inventory,\u201d said Goyal. \u201cIt easily handles merchandise receiving, transfers, suggested ordering, product verification, and, of course, audits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To help maintain that delicate balance between over and under-stocking, Vintners relies on PDI Inventory. \u201cThe system seamlessly integrates with PDI Store Assistant, creating powerful inventory management that not only keeps the right products on our shelves, but also aids in identifying shrink,\u201d Goyal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Lastly, the business intelligence tool, PDI FocalPoint, bolstered the retailer\u2019s reporting capabilities. \u201cWith PDI, the reporting doesn\u2019t have limitations,\u201d Goyal said. \u201cFor example, we can take sales from 2010 and compare them to 2014 down to the sell unit. This kind of detailed reporting is really unique to PDI and has been a huge asset to our organization.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>Customer results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><br><\/strong>The ability to effectively implement and manage item-level inventory at its stores improved efficiency across the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>\u201cThe benefits we\u2019re seeing are more than we anticipated,\u201d Goyal said. \u201cAccurate inventory tracking and audits have led to better reporting, which impacts multiple areas of business.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>Recently, Vintners has successfully reduced shrink in its stores and improved ordering. \u201cIn California, real estate is very expensive, so we don\u2019t want to waste it,\u201d Goyal said. \u201cPDI\u2019s detailed product movement report and suggested ordering tools help us eliminate inventory waste and prevents out-of-stock occurrences on popular items.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>In addition, the company was able to enhance merchandising and marketing strategies with market basket data. \u201cLike most retailers, we use this valuable data to develop in-store promotions, but we take it a step further,\u201d said Goyal. \u201cWe also use it to negotiate with vendors. If certain products they want to promote aren\u2019t moving in our stores, we make deals around products that do. It puts the negotiating power back in our hands because we have the information to back it up.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Cost exception reports also proved to be particularly helpful in managing vendor relationships. \u201cLet\u2019s say you\u2019ve made a deal with a vendor to give you a discount on a certain product,\u201d Goyal said. \u201cThe system will generate an alert when the cost is outside of what was agreed to. It\u2019s great for vendor accountability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br>In all, Goyal says item-level inventory is saving Vintners hundreds of thousands of dollars every year. \u201cThe benefits are tangible. Recently we saw a savings of nearly US$400,000. It requires dedication to implement and maintain, but it\u2019s worth it. Having PDI in our corner just makes it easier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vintners Distributors, a branded retailer of fuels operating in California, is benefiting from its deployment of a range of business solutions from PDI Software bolstering its reporting capabilities, improving its commercial processes and enhancing its merchandising and marketing strategies. The year was 1978. As political unrest overseas slowly inched the US to the precipice of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4485,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,511,38,40,43,514,49],"tags":[562,1572,1575,1571,1576,1574,149,1570,1573],"class_list":["post-4484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-intelligent-technology-newsletter","category-retail","category-storage","category-top-stories","category-used","category-west-coast","tag-california","tag-oakland","tag-pdi-pricebook","tag-pdi-software","tag-raman-goyal","tag-retailer","tag-us","tag-vintners","tag-vintners-distributors"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4484"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4616,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4484\/revisions\/4616"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/north-america\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}