Delivering groceries to your door in minutes
Valora AG is a Swiss multinational company that specializes in food and convenience services, operating 2,680 stores across five European nations. The company's portfolio includes 11 prominent brands such as avec, BackWerk, Brezelkönig, k kiosks, and Press & Books, which collectively generated CHF 2.7 billion in 2020.
Challenge: Amid evolving consumer preferences during the Covid-19 pandemic and the emergence of well-funded quick-commerce startups like Gorillas and Flink, Valora Digital faced the task of modernizing Valora AG's business model, store formats, and delivery systems to maintain competitiveness. Seeking to be an early pioneer of quick commerce in Switzerland, Valora Digital chose to collaborate with Boldheart.
Solution: To formulate Valora's quick commerce strategy, Boldheart initiated a workshop with the Valora Digital team to identify key success factors. They then partnered to develop strategies focused on the essential components of the business model. Additionally, they established best practices for micro-fulfillment center operations, highlighting the need to balance customer demands with space limitations, efficiency in picking, and replenishment processes. Boldheart also defined the requirements for a complete software ecosystem that included both customer-facing and internal systems for inventory management, order processing, and delivery. By organizing tasks into 10-day sprints, they successfully met a tight three-month timeline for software development and testing. Prior to the launch of the minimum viable product (MVP), Boldheart also contributed to a robust brand activation strategy to maximize business visibility and relevance.
Impact: With Boldheart's assistance, Valora Digital accumulated significant expertise in the quick commerce sector, formulated a quick commerce strategy, and launched its first MVP within a few months. This enabled Valora to be among the initial companies in the Swiss market to test the service and achieve strong initial traction.