How Imperial Distributors Improved Forecasting to Reduce Safety Stock

Imperial Distributors Inc., based in Worcester and Auburn, Massachusetts, is a non-foods service wholesaler serving over 2,000 food stores and employs 700 people. The company delivers shelf-quantity products and provides in-store merchandising services for about 20,000 SKU’s.

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The Need

Imperial Distributors was coming off a significant growth year. Imperial wanted to maintain its award winning customer service and hoped that the new HIMPACT purchasing system could maintain this with less inventory.

“It is essential how quickly HIMPACT and its forecasts react to change because  change is a constant in our business.”

- Marc Lajoie, Manager of Procurement, Imperial Distributors

The Result

“We extensively tested 20 Vendors, representing 10% of dollar sales, of varied volumes, across disparate categories. The improved forecasting methods enabled us to carry less safety stock. The result of the test is that we increased our turn on the test vendors while still attaining the desired service level.”

“A key advance is that while our current system forecasts monthly, the new HIMPACT system forecasts daily. The daily forecasts are based on true customer orders rather than shipment totals. We can see at a glance not only what the total demand is, but we can drill down to determine which customers are generating that demand. Another important difference is how quickly the HIMPACT system reacts to change compared to our existing system. There is much more information to identify changes that are occurring, before an item rapidly runs away, or tails off. This especially is an advantage in the handling of new items, which can be very challenging,” says Manager of Procurement, Marc Lajoie.

“Another consideration was how quickly the Replenishment Team would adapt to the new system. The conclusion from our test is that HIMPACT is exceptionally user-friendly and intuitive. Not to be discounted is HIMPACT’s top notch support of our team to answer any questions that we had.”

“We Streamlined many processes that used to be done manually”

- Marc Lajoie, Imperial Distributors

10 Years Later...

For over 10 years, Imperial Distributors has seen the benefits of the system time and again. Here are some of the benefits Imperial Distributors continues to see today:

- With HIMPACT in place, Imperial Distributors was better positioned to navigate supply chain disruptions and other industry complications.

- They were able to optimize and stabilize the service levels and improve inventory turns.With daily re-forcasting and alerts, Imperial Distributors is able to react quickly to changes and is alerted to take action when specific items are behaving differently than expected.

- Imperial Distributors conducts four seasonal shows per year, with similar inventory requirements for each. When ordering seasonal or promotional products, new HIMPACT features have enabled them to upload orders for over 250 vendors in a few seconds instead of manually over 12-14 days.

- Marc Lajoie, Manager of Procurement at Imperial Distributors, said “HIMPACT has streamlined many processes that used to be done manually. But the story is not about the ability to upload. The story is about the quality and intelligence of the of the system itself. At Imperial, not only does the Procurement team trust HIMPACT, but also the Category Managers and Upper Management trusts HIMPACT. HIMPACT and Imperial have an excellent working relationship.

- ”Due to the design of HIMPACT, it is easy for companies to implement and requires little to no additional IT resources. It is a flexible system that works well on a variety of existing technologies.

- Imperial Distributors loves how well HIMPACT works with their internal I.T. department. Lajoie commented, “HIMPACT is easy for new users to learn and is quite intuitive. It is very strong in the areas of onboarding and education in general.”

The BFC Difference

BFC Software is a food-focused solutions platform—from forecasting and warehouse operations to the final mile. Designed to evolve with industry demands, BFC helps customers stay ahead with data-driven insights that boost efficiency, improve performance, and optimize operations.