Case Study - Revolutionizing Pricing in Food Wholesale

Background

Palvelutukku Immonen, a leading food distribution company with 10,000+ products and 300+ suppliers, was swamped by manual pricing processes:

• Price lists arrived multiple times a year, often with last-minute shifts right before high-demand periods.
• Managing promotions, supplier changes, and margin checks across thousands of SKUs consumed 3–4 months of continuous labor.
• Overworked teams skipped valuable tasks like profitability analysis due to time constraints.
• Any data entry error could disrupt order pipelines and e-commerce accuracy.

These legacy spreadsheets couldn’t keep pace with real-world operations, risking both margin losses and missed opportunities for strategic growth.

Solution

Econ delivered a turnkey solution that overhauled Immonen’s pricing approach—combining deep operational insight with advanced data automation:

Unified Data & Automation

• Merged supplier price lists, Synkka product data, and customer-specific pricing into one cohesive platform.
• Automated updates for product catalogs, promotional pricing, and campaign rollouts, eliminating tedious manual entry.

Rapid Pricing & Margin Insights

• Implemented real-time margin calculations and alerts, ensuring immediate visibility into potential risks or opportunities.
• Streamlined workflows let staff update thousands of products at once, enabling quick response to supplier cost changes.

Operational Continuity

• No forced system overhauls—Econ integrated seamlessly with existing processes.
• E-commerce and order pipelines stayed online throughout the transition, with no disruption to day-to-day operations.

Proactive Decision-Making

• Freed teams to focus on strategic tasks, such as profitability analysis and customer-specific promotions, previously neglected due to time constraints.
• Enabled timely, accurate forecasts and price checks, fueling confident decision-making and robust supplier negotiations.

Results

90% Faster Pricing Cycle

Workflows dropped from 3–4 months to as little as 1–2 weeks, ensuring data remains current and relevant.

Real-Time Accuracy

Automated data validation minimized errors, preventing the costly scramble of fixing issues post-launch. Supplier changes now integrate seamlessly, without blind spots.

Significant ROI

Teams previously bogged down by manual data entry are now free to pursue high-impact initiatives—leading to new revenue streams and deeper customer relationships.

Competitive Advantage

Fast, accurate pricing decisions mean Immonen can quickly respond to market changes, secure favorable deals with suppliers, and keep customers happy with reliable data.