Empower Fresh partners with grocery retailers

Empower Fresh Co. says three new partnerships with Queen's Price Chopper, Ray's Apple Market and Pruett's Foods will bring its produce inventory management and ordering tools to grocery stores across the Kansas City region.

“Partnering with Queen’s Price Chopper, Ray’s Apple Market and Pruett’s Foods is an exciting step in our growth and mission to help independent grocers thrive,” Robert Austin, president for Empower Fresh Co., said in a news release. “As a second generation produce pro, I am excited to work with all of these multi-generational owned, produce driven, grocers that have remained staples in their communities for so long.”

Empower Fresh, a provider of artificial intelligence-driven software-as-a-service solutions for independent retail grocery stores, says its platform is designed to optimize produce operations, reduce shrink, increase inventory turns, boost sales and lower labor costs. With a focus on data-driven insights, the platform seeks to grocery retailers make informed, actionable decisions to streamline their fresh produce departments, according to the release.

"We are very excited to get launched with Empower Fresh to improve our cost of goods, ordering efficiency and inventory turns in produce to really maximize profitability in such an important fresh department.” said Dylan Queen, owner and operator of Queen’s Price Chopper.

Empower Fresh said Queen’s Price Chopper, Ray’s Apple Market and Pruett’s Foods will benefit from its AI-powered features, including real-time inventory tracking, predictive ordering and shrink reduction solutions. These capabilities will help store teams to better meet customer demands while minimizing waste and improving overall store performance, the company said.

"Empower Fresh is bringing powerful and innovative technology into our independent grocer world. All of the real-time data of our department's business is streamlined into one easy to use platform. It is highly customizable and ready to support us in making informed business decisions — leading to Ray's Apple Market being competitive with national chains," said Will Hutfles, produce director for Ray’s Apple Market.

"Our partnership with Empower Fresh has been awesome. With the AI-ordering, we have been able to stabilize the store inventory, hone in our shrink and increase our sales opportunities in several categories." said Collin Converse, produce director for Pruett’s Foods.