Coles Selects Infor to Modernise International Supply Chain and Deliver Real-Time Inventory Visibility

Australia’s Leading Retailer Invests in Infor Nexus to Streamline Imports and Reduce Costs

Infor, a global leader in business cloud software specialised by industry, announced that leading Australian retailer Coles has chosen Infor Nexus for its global trade platform to create enhanced international supply chain visibility for the organization.

The deployment of the global trade platform will streamline imports, reduce costs and modernise Coles’ international supply chain. The retailer will roll out the world-class solution in 2020, the first organisation in Australia to directly do so.

Infor Nexus, a Leader in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Multienterprise Supply Chain Business Networks, is a scalable platform that will enable Coles to:

• Reduce working capital through lower stock in transit and distribution centre stock holdings
• Reduce transport costs, including freight, demurrage and customs clearance
• Simplify transactions with freight service providers

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Kevin Gunn, Coles executive general manager operations and transformation, said the Infor Nexus platform will enable real-time visibility of international stock. “Availability is a key issue for customers, and some popular items — such as light globes, herbs and spices, and kitchen essentials like foil and garbage bags — cannot be sourced domestically, so we need to look to international suppliers,” he said.

“By understanding where our stock is in transit, we can better plan our stock movements to enhance availability for customers and reduce the time taken to move products into our stores, improving our use of working capital by reducing the time inventory spends in our supply chain,” Gunn said.

“It will also support improved efficiencies through the supply chain by minimising the need to move stock between states, resulting in fewer truck movements, which will also improve road safety and reduce carbon emissions,” he said.

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Coles will run all international transactions through the Infor Nexus B2B information exchange.

“Ultimately, Infor Nexus will lead to better product availability on-the-shelf for customers,” Roger Sniezek, Coles chief information and digital officer, said. “We have committed to being technology-led in our stores and throughout our supply chain to reduce costs while delivering an even better shopping experience for customers, and making life easier for our team members. Infor Nexus is another investment in this.”

Brett Egglestone, Infor ANZ vice president of commercial and retail, said the speed of business today demands a supply chain capable of controlling the end-to-end flow of documents, data and inventory.

“The Infor Nexus platform will provide multi-enterprise connectivity to help Coles digitise the flow of information between its trading partners and provide a single system of record to orchestrate the physical and financial supply chain,” he said. “We are excited to partner with Coles and be part of its intelligence-driven supply chain strategy.”

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