Albertsons Companies and IRI Expand Relationship

CHICAGO — IRI announced today that it will begin providing supply chain services to Albertsons Companies, the second largest grocery chain in the United States, in addition to being its preferred partner for point-of-sale data, consumer panel insights and strategic growth initiatives to support joint business collaboration.

Under the agreement, Albertsons Companies, which has more than 2,200 grocery stores across 33 states and the District of Columbia under such well-known banners as Albertsons, Safeway, Vons and Jewel-Osco, will integrate its supply chain data, including inventory and transactional shipment data, into the IRI Liquid Data and Unify visualization platform. The industry-leading technology platform incorporates extensive product movement and causal data, work flow capability and real-time data visualization. This new offering will help Albertsons Companies and its suppliers collaborate more easily and make better decisions to benefit customers.

“We feel that there is real power and efficiency in connecting insights from our store shelves all the way back into the collective supply chain,” said Amanda Martinez, group vice president of Corporate Procurement for Albertsons Companies. “This expanded agreement with IRI will allow us to collaborate in a more meaningful and real-time manner with our suppliers. We believe it will help us to provide more of what our customers want no matter when or how they shop.”

“It has been terrific to partner with Albertsons Companies during the past year, and we are thrilled to expand on our relationship to include supply chain services,” said Andrew Appel, president and chief executive officer for IRI. “Our alliance provides access to a unique combination of rich data, advanced analytics and a unified technology platform that will help Albertsons and its suppliers better understand and drive consumer experiences, making consumers’ lives easier and improving sales.”

Albertsons Companies selected IRI because of its focus on growth, the power of integrating with category and shopper data in easy-to-use applications, proprietary purchase propensity modeling at the store and household levels, prescriptive analytics and the quality of its people.

About the IRI Partner Ecosystem

IRI fundamentally believes that delivering differentiated growth for clients requires deep, highly integrated partnering with a variety of best-of-breed companies. As such, IRI works closely with a broad range of industry leaders to create innovative joint solutions, services and access to capabilities to help its clients more effectively compete in their various markets and exceed their growth objectives. IRI is committed to its partnership philosophy and continues to actively enhance its ecosystem of partners through alliances, joint ventures, acquisitions and affiliations. The IRI Partner Ecosystem includes such companies as 84.51°, Adobe, The Boston Consulting Group, comScore, Experian, GfK, Gigwalk, Ipsos, Kantar, MasterCard Advisors, MaxPoint, Millward Brown Digital, Pinterest, Oracle, Research Now, Simulmedia, SPINS, Survey Sampling International, Univision and others.

About IRI

IRI is a leading provider of big data, predictive analytics and forward-looking insights that help CPG, OTC health care organizations, retailers, financial services and media companies grow their businesses. A confluence of major external events — a change in consumer buying habits, big data coming into its own, advanced analytics and personalized consumer activation — is leading to a seismic shift in drivers of success in all industries. With the largest repository of purchase, media, social, causal and loyalty data, all integrated on an on-demand, cloud-based technology platform, IRI is empowering the personalization revolution, helping to guide its more than 5,000 clients around the world in their quests to remain relentlessly relevant, capture market share, connect with consumers, collaborate with key constituents and deliver market-leading growth. For more information, visit www.iriworldwide.com.