Coca-Cola European Partners Germany GmbH and breweries Bitburger and Krombacher have announced a joint venture for introducing digital services in the beverage wholesale trade for out-of-home markets.
The joint venture, named 'Kollex', will act as a central contact for digital ordering services for restaurateurs and beverage wholesalers.
Restaurateurs will be able to order all products, at any time of the day, offered by beverage wholesale traders participating in the online services.
Efficient Online Services
Kollex is in the process of developing a user-friendly, digital platform that will simplify and accelerate internal ordering processes for wholesale beverage customers.
Managing director of the joint venture, Udo Kiesslich said, "When it comes to digitalisation in the out-of-home market, Kollex will be a strong partner and we want to develop our services in close cooperation with the [beverage wholesale trade] and its customers, because our goal is a long-term partnership with practical solutions."
Error-prone manual processes will be replaced with an efficient alternative that will save time and expenses, the group said in a statement.
The digital platform will also enable wholesalers to have an overview of all orders in real time, and carry out sales campaigns in a targeted manner.
The first set of pilot projects have been scheduled to be launched by the end of 2018.
Learnings from these pilot projects will be the basis for further development of the online platform, and will decide the course of action for the nationwide rollout, currently slated for the first half of 2019.
German antitrust authorities are currently reviewing the joint venture.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Dayeeta Das. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine
