Southern Glazer's Data-Driven Supply Chain
INDUSTRY
Consumer ProductsOFFERING
Strategic Supply Chain Assessment & Roadmap, APS Implementation, Managed ServicesTECHNOLOGY
Blue YonderWhen legacy tools leave value on the shelf
Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is North America’s largest wine and spirits distributor, serving 45 markets and moving over 200 million cases each year. With a reputation for operational excellence, the company has invested heavily in advanced warehousing, automation, and tracking technologies.
But by 2019, its legacy planning platform—nearly two decades old—was struggling to keep up with a fast-growing network and increasingly dynamic product mix.
Specifically, Southern Glazer’s was dealing with forecast inaccuracies, inventory imbalances, and rising costs.
Manual workarounds became the norm, while service levels and operational efficiency suffered.
Beyond the technology, the company also had organizational misalignment—planning roles, processes, and governance hadn’t evolved with the business, limiting adoption and ROI from previous investments.
To stay ahead in the fast-moving consumer products market, Southern Glazer’s needed more than a system upgrade. They needed a transformation that could align people, processes, and technology. That meant better visibility, sharper forecasts, and smarter execution—from end to end. And that’s where Spinnaker SCA came in.
New tools, new thinking, better results
To chart a new course, Southern Glazer’s partnered with Spinnaker SCA to drive an end-to-end transformation of their supply chain planning ecosystem. Beginning with a comprehensive assessment and roadmap, the initiative established a clear path to modernize both technology and processes in tandem. Spinnaker SCA partnered with Southern Glazer's to architect and deliver a multi-year planning transformation anchored in Blue Yonder’s Advanced Planning Suite.
- 01 Audit what’s broken
- 02 Build the foundation
- 03 Early wins
- 04 Flex for what’s next
- 05 Uncork cost savings
Exposing gaps & growing pains
Laying the groundwork for agility
With clarity on what to fix, Spinnaker SCA and Southern Glazer's architected a modern planning stack around Blue Yonder Demand, Inventory Optimization, Order Optimization, and Reporting—all integrated with their S&OP process and built to scale.
Training people, not just tech
The implementation went far beyond technical deployment. Spinnaker SCA redesigned their planning roles, reconfigured forecast logic, and delivered change leadership cross-functionally.
Through targeted training, clear documentation, and managed service support, users engaged deeply with the new system—unlocking its full potential from day one.
Scaling smarter as complexity grows
As Southern Glazer's expanded following a merger, Spinnaker SCA ensured its upgraded platform kept working and stayed connected. From SKU segmentation to real-time alignment, the planning model was tuned for long-term complexity and growth.
Turning capability into continuous performance
Post go-live, Spinnaker SCA also led an inventory optimization effort that delivered over $100 million in cost savings.
With the right systems, data governance, user engagement, and performance tracking in place, Southern Glazer's was assured those wins weren’t just one-time—they became embedded in how supply chain planning gets done every day.
Cheers to supply chain transformation
“We were on a legacy system that was over 18 years old. It was not scalable. Spinnaker understood our industry and helped us implement the solution that brought our forecast accuracy up, reduced inventory, and allowed us to operate smarter.”
- Andrew Vermilion, Director of Inventory Optimization, Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits
The impact was immediate and measurable. Customer fill rates rose by 5%, while forecast accuracy improved by over 8% year-over-year. Inventory capital was reduced by 5%, resulting in more than $100 million in working capital savings. Delivery backlogs were significantly reduced, and the company saw a notable improvement in warehouse efficiency and responsiveness.
With Blue Yonder in place and fully adopted across planning teams, Southern Glazer's now operates with higher confidence, visibility, and agility. The supply chain planning platform is not only delivering real-
time recommendations—it’s also enabling a culture shift toward proactive decision-making, continuous optimization, and customer-first service.
Southern Glazer's now has the foundation to scale its supply chain with the business—backed by clean data, strong governance, and a solution that integrates seamlessly across demand, supply, and execution. They didn’t just upgrade their planning platform—they modernized how planning gets done.
Redefine what success looks like—at scale.
Don't just implement more software. Make sure you've got what you need to turn your fragmented planning systems into high-performing supply chain ecosystems.