Convenience store retailer RaceTrac has selected Arizona-based Blue Yonder to transform its warehousing operations and transportation modelling.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, family-owned RaceTrac is the 22nd largest privately held company in the USA and has been operating since 1934. It has nearly 800 retail locations representing the RaceTrac and RaceWay brands in 13 states offering fuel plus a wide selection of food and beverages.

It will implement several Blue Yonder supply chain execution products to meet the company’s growth plans and improve warehouse capabilities, labour management and network performance, supported by the Open Sky group.

As consumer expectations continue to evolve, retailers need to synchronise their execution across operations, resulting in faster transit times and reduced cost-to-serve. That’s why RaceTrac has selected Blue Yonder to transform digitally its warehousing operations and transportation modelling capabilities. The retailer will implement Blue Yonder warehouse management (blueyonder.com/solutions/warehouse-management), labour management (blueyonder.com/solutions/labor-management) and transportation modelling (blueyonder.com/knowledge-center/collateral/transportation-modeling-solution-sheet) to support future company expansion.

RaceTrac’s current execution-focused technologies were not able to meet its future growth plans, so it turned to Blue Yonder. The project will be implemented by Blue Yonder partner Open Sky.

With Blue Yonder, RaceTrac will be able to support store growth and geographic expansion initiatives, automate supply chain execution processes, synchronise warehouse execution and optimise labour retention.

The retailer will be able quickly to onboard and seamlessly embed advancements in automation to streamline operations. The technology should provide early visibility to demand and corresponding labour requirements to realise a more balanced and consistent operational experience, as well as improve labour standards and incentive pay.

One goal is to enhance the balance between carriers and private fleet, determining the appropriate size and deployment of private fleet, optimising fleet routing and laying the foundation for continuous optimisation while extending its transportation network.

“We needed to not only improve our basic system functionality but meet the needs of our growing business,” said Daniel Vasseur, executive director at RaceTrac. “After evaluating several vendors, we knew Blue Yonder was the right supply-chain provider as they could truly provide the end-to-end capabilities that we needed to digitally transform our operations and allow us to grow as our business and customer needs changed. Having worked with them for more than 20 years in the category management space, we are looking forward to implementing these with them.”

Blue Yonder will help RaceTrac gain more flexibility, real-time responsiveness and prescriptive mobile workflows to manage complex warehouse operations, as well as unlocking opportunities for greater efficiency, performance and cost reductions across the warehouse. At the same time, RaceTrac can manage labour to drive employee engagement and performance to enhance business results. With Blue Yonder transportation modelling, RaceTrac can effectively reduce transportation costs and lower distances and carbon footprint by optimising its carrier-private fleet mix, fleet size, deployment and routing.

Open Sky specialies in warehouse, labour and transportation management, helping clients lower costs and risks with its proprietary methodology and no-modifications approach to upgrades and implementations.

“We are excited to assist RaceTrac with their Blue Yonder warehouse and labour management implementation in four warehouses across the southern USA,” said Eric McPherson, vice president at Open Sky (openskygroup.com). “These are going to increase their warehouse efficiency and give them a competitive advantage in a challenging supply-chain landscape.”

Vince Beacom, senior vice president at Blue Yonder, added: “Having been a trusted supply chain provider to RaceTrac for more than 20 years, we are excited that they selected us to lead their digital transformation journey. RaceTrac’s warehousing capabilities will be greatly enhanced once they implement Blue Yonder warehouse management and with labour management and transportation modelling their ability to better manage their labour and network performance will greatly improve. We are excited to be on this journey with them now and into the future.”

Blue Yonder (blueyonder.com) specialises in digital supply chain transformation. Global retailers, manufacturers and logistics providers leverage Blue Yonder to optimise their supply chains from planning through fulfilment, delivery and returns.

RaceTrac (www.racetrac.com) employs more than 10,500 people across RaceTrac, RaceWay and affiliated companies Metroplex Energy and Energy Dispatch.