Kehe Food Distributors Invests in Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle’s Demantra

Specialty Foods Leader Modernizes IT Platform to Better Service Customers and Vendors.

REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.-Kehe Food Distributors has selected Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and Oracle’s Demantra to create an integrated, modernized IT infrastructure, Oracle today announced. Distributing over 40,000 specialty items such as ethnic products, gourmet and natural foods to more than 9,000 grocery stores in 47 states, Kehe will rely on Oracle to better manage inventory, support growth and improve customer and vendor service.

“Although we’re a mid-market company, we needed affordable, enterprise-level functionality to better service and interact with our large grocery customers including Albertson’s, Meijer and HEB,” said Kehe Food Distributors CIO Scott Cousins. “We’re confident that our investment in Oracle(r) Applications will make it easier for our customers and vendors to do business with Kehe Foods. We’ll also be better equipped with an efficient supply chain that will help ensure the right products are available to our customers when they need them.”

Founded in 1952, Kehe supplies organic, natural, ethnic, Kosher and other specialty food products. With consumer spending for natural, organic and other specialty products on the rise, and the ongoing growth within ethnic communities throughout the United States, Kehe outgrew its custom legacy systems, making it difficult to stay ahead of demand. Additionally, holidays such as Passover and Lent create spikes in demand for specific products and Kehe needed an infrastructure to better manage inventory during these seasonal shifts.

The company invested in Oracle’s JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to help streamline its financial, order management, supply chain and human capital management business processes. Oracle’s Demantra will also provide Kehe with demand management, real-time sales and operations planning and predictive trade planning and optimization capabilities to sense, plan for and proactively respond to demand.

“Kehe’s long term success relies on our ability to deliver the highest order fill rate percentages combined with the maximum level of freshness,” said Kehe Food Distributors Vice President of Procurement and Inbound Logistics, Pat Curran. “With Oracle’s Demantra, we will be equipped to more efficiently manage our most important asset - our inventory. As a result, we will also be able to deliver a greater level of service to our customers and enhance the individual transaction efficiencies with our vendor partners.”