Fresh Thyme rolls out Afresh Production Planning

CHICAGO — Fresh Thyme Market is expanding its use of Afresh Production Planning across its deli, produce, meat, and bakery departments after seeing deli sales improve following its transition from paper-based production planning. The rollout brings the Midwest grocer onto the full Afresh Store Suite, unifying store ordering, in-store production, and inventory management across its fresh perimeter on a single platform.

The partnership supports Fresh Thyme's long-term growth strategy while advancing efforts to reduce food waste, improve operational efficiency, and enhance its selection of fresh, organic, and better-for-you products. Afresh's technology also helps streamline store operations, giving team members more time to focus on serving customers and delivering the high-quality shopping experience that differentiates the Fresh Thyme brand.

Fresh Thyme's produce is rated among the region's best, and its full-service butcher counters and made-in-store prepared foods round out a business built on fresh. The grocer turned to Afresh to keep differentiating on that exceptional quality and service. 

Production planning is at the core of Fresh Thyme's operations and used to run on paper, with each store printing its own par sheets. Their support office had less visibility into what each department made until reports revealed opportunities for greater efficiency after the fact. Now Afresh's AI sets the day's production plan for each item, accounting for the shelf life of ingredients and prepared items, demand, display sizes, and the timing of shopper traffic, so food is freshest when shoppers want it. 

In the deli, the plan sets how many rotisserie chickens to make and when to roast them, more for the lunch rush and fewer for off-peak traffic. In meat, it ties each cut to the subprimal it comes from, so the plan reflects what is on hand. In the bakery, it schedules the thawing and proofing that must start the night before. 

The results showed up on the deli floor fast. Adherence to production plans jumped from 40% to 90%, and deli sales rose significantly. Rotisserie chicken has become a top seller, with a massive y-o-y sales lift. In aggregate, Fresh Thyme realized stronger efficiencies while also increasing sales due to Afresh’s recommendations more accurately targeting the true demand across prepared food. 

"We've partnered with Afresh since 2019, and every year we've trusted them with more of our fresh operations. Production planning has been the most natural step yet. It's simple and intuitive, so adherence climbed in a way we never could never realize on paper," said Josh Cotton, Director of Retail Operations, Fresh Thyme Market. 

Fresh Thyme is also rolling out Afresh Period Ending Inventory, replacing manual end-of-period counts with a scan that feeds the same system. With this rollout, Fresh Thyme now runs on the full Afresh Store Suite. 

"Fresh Thyme has consistently embraced innovations from Afresh. As we've expanded what's possible with AI in fresh, they've continued to invest alongside us to help their teams operate more efficiently and continuously deliver shoppers an even stronger experience. Partnerships like this are what drive meaningful innovation in grocery," said Matt Schwartz, Chief Executive Officer, Afresh.