RELEX Solutions Acquires Galleria RTS

RELEX Solutions, a Finnish supply chain solution provider, has acquired Staffs-headquartered Galleria, a provider of category planning, automation & optimisation solutions to the retail industry.

The acquisition increases the footprint of RELEX’s existing sales and delivery network in North America and APAC, with the united company having prime retail brands including AO.com, Morrisons, PARKnSHOP, Rossmann and Safeway, as customers in every continent bar Antarctica.

In September 2015, RELEX accepted a €20M minority investment from global growth equity firm Summit Partners to boost its global expansion ahead of a key push into the North American market. The first supply chain solution provider to offer retailers, wholesalers and manufacturers the power of in-memory computing, RELEX latterly announced its aim to become a global leader in integrated retail and supply chain planning. The acquisition of Galleria’s best-of-breed cluster, assortment and space optimisation solution is a strong step in that direction. Combined, they offer an integrated retail planning platform, with state-of-the-art technology, to manage and optimize the inventory from supplier-level up to the point of sale, from automated replenishment to planograms.

Mikko Kärkkäinen, Group CEO, RELEX Solutions comments: “We’re delighted to announce that Galleria is joining RELEX Solutions. There’s a great synergy between the two solutions. Like RELEX, Galleria is dedicated to helping clients achieve increased sales, enhanced margins, reduced inventory, cut waste and improved on-shelf availability.”

“We also share the same core values and ethos, such as putting our customers at the center of everything we do. This means that, on top of being a strong technological and geographical addition to our wider vision of an integrated retail planning solution, culturally, both companies are a very good fit.”

The integration of RELEX’s supply chain solutions and Galleria’s consumer-focused solutions for clustering, automated assortment, space optimization and planogramming has already started with preliminary work jointly done with retailers using both solutions and will carry on in the coming months. Together, the offering will provide customers with an unparalleled degree of power and agility in retail planning.

Kärkkäinen adds: “I’m very excited at the opportunity to bring together all aspects of retail planning through the continuous analysis of real-time data, from the shop floor all the way back up through the supply chain. By combining store assortment, space allocation and continuous information on planned fixtures and presentations for each product in store, retailers will have a much better understanding of the demand and increased forecast accuracy. With this increased level of insight, we can help drive huge additional value to our customers.”

Ian Duncan-Lewis, CEO, Galleria, concludes: “We’re thrilled to become part of the RELEX group and to play a critical role in developing an integrated retail planning platform. RELEX’s founders have an unprecedented clarity of thought in how retailers’ existing supply chain and planning processes can be improved through the latest generation of innovative technology.”