FEB 20218Caught between the short shelf life of fresh items, numerous regulations pertaining to nutrition, and stiff competition from giants like Amazon, Whole Foods and Walmart, fresh food retailers are in a fix today. Standing as their pillar of strength, Applied Data Corporation (ADC), has pioneered a solution to help stores maximize their sales and profit margins while minimizing their food waste. With a deep understanding of the nuances surrounding fresh food retail, the company has carved a niche for itself in supporting retailers' production planning, inventory management, recipe management, and food safety compliance functions. In an interview with Food & Beverage Technology Review, ADC's CEO, Shamus Hines and Robert Appell, its Chief Product Officer, take us through the company's chronicle starting from its inception to the rapid strides the company has made on its path to success.What spurred the idea of ADC?Hines: ADC was founded as a consulting project for some of the country's largest grocers. Back then, it was about device management as grocers had different types of weighing scales and the absence of an industry standard communication protocol, which introduced inconsistency in terms of sharing pricing information on items between the departments of a grocery store. We stepped in to address this challenge and came up with a software solution called InterStore that initially focused on device connectivity. Since then, it has evolved to include other areas around fresh food such as recipe management, production planning, inventory management, food safety, nutrition, and recipes based on demand. Today, we feel like a 30-year-old startup, still excited as ever about the industry, and as more technology gets incorporated into our process, we are consistently modernizing our platform to address the challenges faced by fresh food retailers today and in the future.Please tell us about the InterStore Fresh Item Management suite.Appell: InterStore is a cloud-based software suite built to solve pain points across the fresh department. As fresh food Applied Data Corporation:The Grandmaster of Fresh Food Retail TechToday, we feel like a 30-year-old startup, still excited as ever about the industry, and as more technology gets incorporated into our process, we are consistently modernizing our platform to address the challenges faced by fresh food retailers today and in the futureShamus Hines
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