One of North Carolina’s largest and oldest grocery distributors is embracing artificial intelligence to boost its future and that of its many clients.
Hickory-based Alex Lee Inc., the owner of Winston-Salem-based Lowes Foods and grocery distributor Merchants Distributors (MDI), has inked a deal with Atlanta-based Revionics to leverage artificial intelligence in advising customers on retail pricing.
Alex Lee Inc., founded in 1931, has renewed a deal between MDI and Revionics to use the Atlanta company’s pricing platform technology, continuing to build on a relationship that dates back to 2007. With some 40,000 food and nonfood times, MDI supplies more than 600 grocery stores in 12 states, while also exporting goods to retailers and distributors in 36 countries.
Revionics, an Aptos company, provides a platform driven by artificial intelligence to offer recommendations to retailers and distributors on pricing.
Nick Carlino, executive vice president of sales and merchandising at MDI, credited the use of Revionics with helping grocers build loyalty with customers and enhance profitability.
“Over the course of our relationship with Revionics, we’ve overachieved in terms of bottom-line gains and top-line sales that we’ve generated from our investment in the software,” Carlino said. “The team at Revionics are retail pricing experts. The science works, the results are consistent, and their team, like ours, keeps its finger on the pulse of retail.”
The deal comes as MDI continues to grow, having announced in October 2020 that it would invest $120 million in an expansion adding 200,000 square feet and 111 jobs in Hickory. All told, Alex Lee employs more than 10,000 people, operating MDI as well as Souto Foods, an Atlanta-based distributor of Hispanic foods. Lowes Foods, which dates back to 1954 and employs nearly 9,000, operates more than 80 stores across the Carolinas and Virginia under the Lowes and JustSave Foods banners.
