Vinoteca Allies With RELEX to Optimize Operations

Wine and spirits retailer Grupo Vinoteca has partnered with RELEX Solutions, a provider of unified supply chain and retail planning logistics, to improve the accuracy of its demand forecasts and optimize its replenishment and distribution processes.

“To meet our strategic growth plans, Vinoteca needed to adopt advanced supply chain and planning solutions like RELEX’s to drive efficiency within our supply chain, teams, processes, and service standards,” said Antonio Achem, Supply Chain and Merchandising Director, Vinoteca. 

Vinoteca is expanding into the wine, spirits and retail delicatessen market and sought an advanced solution to support its plans for growth. Before partnering with RELEX, the retailer relied on manual, time-consuming spreadsheets. The new solution will be implemented across Vinoteca’s 27 stores and two distribution centers in Mexico. In addition, it will also expand its e-commerce and distribution channels to hotels, restaurants, supermarkets and wholesalers. 

RELEX will help Vinoteca to improve product availability and optimize inventories to provide better customer experience, the company said. Artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities will enable Vinoteca to operate more efficiently through automated demand planning, purchasing and replenishment. RELEX’s partner Wysupp, a Portuguese tech company, will implement the solution.

“The selection and purchasing process, associated with managing limited quotas, coupled with long lead times from the vineyard or “terroir” [terrain of origin] to the point of sale, create a complex environment in our industry. The adoption of an artificial intelligence solution gives us a competitive advantage and helps us better understand demand in the long and short term,” said Achem.

“We are thrilled to partner with Vinoteca and help it successfully continue its expansion process. It has taken a big step to transform and integrate the planning of its supply chain, including stores, distribution centers, its e-commerce channel and its supermarket wholesale distribution channels,” said Carlos Victoria, Senior Vice President, RELEX for the Americas.

Grupo Vinoteca is a family business from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, with over 40 years of operation. From the group’s 27 stores, 15 are located within Monterrey's metropolitan area. Vinoteca offers a wide selection of wines, spirits, national and imported beer, in addition to delicatessen products. After almost half a century operating, the Mexican company decided to implement technology within its supply chain operations to continue growing and meet its goals.

On the other hand, RELEX provides a market-leading, unified supply chain and retail planning platform that helps companies to align and optimize demand, merchandise, supply chain and operations planning. Founded in 2005, RELEX works with companies such as Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, Rite Aid, AutoZone, Pet Smart and Saint-Gobain.