Supermarket Chain (Spain)

CLIENT

A supermarket chain seeking to reduce assortment complexity while improving margin and availability.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Assortment had expanded over time without consistent decision rules. Low-value SKUs increased complexity and replenishment noise, while waste and availability issues persisted in sensitive categories.

WHAT WE DID

• Built an analytics fact base combining sales, margin, volatility, substitution, and store clustering

• Defined category rules for SKU roles (core, traffic, seasonal, niche) and rationalisation thresholds

• Identified delist/retain candidates and designed substitution logic to protect customer choice

• Created dashboards for ongoing governance (range changes, margin impact, availability, waste)

RESULT

The rationalisation plan improved gross margin, reduced waste/shrink by in targeted categories, and increased inventory turns, while maintaining availability on priority items through substitution rules and cluster-based assortment governance.