Ace Hardware International Implements Blue Ridge Supply Chain Planning

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Technology to unify and optimize supply chain planning functions across global distribution centers

ATLANTA, GEORGIA (BUSINESS WIRE)-- June 7, 2016

Blue Ridge, a global leader in cloud demand forecasting, planning, replenishment, allocation and analytics, today announced Ace Hardware International will implement Blue Ridge Supply Chain Planning technology to unify and optimize supply chain planning functions across their global distribution centers and retail locations.

ace hardware intl logo“In order to support 600 global stores, across 62 countries, efficient and accurate supply chain planning is required. Generating demand plans and creating forecasts required extensive manual effort to consolidate information from multiple applications, increasing our risk for errors,” said Brian Cronenwett, vice president, international logistics at Ace Hardware Corporation. “Blue Ridge provides a complete solution, with extensive multi-echelon inventory optimization capabilities, enabling us to increase service levels by efficiently and effectively aligning inventory across our worldwide supply chain.”

 Quote startBlue Ridge provides a complete solution, with extensive multi-echelon inventory optimization capabilities, enabling us to increase service levels by efficiently and effectively aligning inventory across our worldwide supply chain.Quote end

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Additionally, Ace International saw significant value in the ability of Blue Ridge’s cloud-native technology to more accurately predict and forecast customer demand patterns, manage long lead times, and significantly improve internal collaboration and visibility with anytime, anywhere access.

Cronenwett continued, “Blue Ridge provides tremendous domain expertise with supply chain experts that monitor our activities in real-time and proactively alert us on potential issues to ensure we are approaching our planning in the right way.”

“Ace Hardware is a renowned worldwide leader in home improvement, and their forward-thinking approach to supply chain planning will enable powerful results going forward,” stated Greg White, CEO of Blue Ridge. White continued, “By strategically examining their global supply chain, and adapting to the changing pace of commerce today, the company is already a step ahead, and we expect they’ll see rapid and sustainable results on their global initiatives.”

For more information about Ace Hardware International, please visit www.acehardwareintl.com

About Ace Hardware

For more than 90 years, Ace Hardware has been known as the place with the helpful hardware folks in thousands of neighborhoods across America, providing customers with a more personal kind of helpful. With more than 4,800 hardware stores locally owned and operated across the globe, Ace is the largest retailer-owned hardware cooperative in the world. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., Ace and its subsidiaries currently operate 17 distribution centers in the U.S. and also have distribution capabilities in Ningbo, China; Colon, Panama; and Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Its retailers' stores are located in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and approximately 60 countries. For more information on Ace, visit www.acehardware.com.

About Blue RIdge

Blue Ridge Supply Chain Planning and Price Optimization solutions empower distributors and retailers to tap into undiscovered margin through enterprise-wide inventory intelligence, automation and synchronization. Blue Ridge uniquely combines demand forecasting with pricing strategy, so that businesses can proactively understand the unpredictable and allocate the right inventory – right-priced across the entire mix – to accelerate top- and bottom-line results. In a world where the only constant is change, Blue Ridge provides more certainty, more speed, and more assurance – so companies can see the why behind the buy, and respond faster to the unexpected. That’s why major retailers and distributors rely on Blue Ridge for a more foreseeable future. For more information, go to www.blueridgeglobal.de