C&S Wholesale Grocers

Continuant Helps a Major Wholesale Grocer Deliver the Goods With No Downtime

Background

Ever wonder how your favorite grocery store gets the merchandise—food and non-food alike—that it makes available daily to shoppers like you? And have you ever marveled at how quickly your local market can re-stock items like hot dogs and watermelon over the Fourth of July, or keep turkeys and cranberries supplied for the Thanksgiving holiday, when it seems that these family favorites are always flying off the shelves? Meet C&S Wholesale Grocers.

The solution

24/7 support to 32 key locations with 7,367 users
Support for a much more reasonable price
Onsite Critical Spares
Remote Simple Service Request (SSR)
Single point of contact for all system needs

The challenge

Complex system with Avaya and several other carriers
17,000 employees with 6,500 major retail customers in communication network
Needlessly expensive support
Confusing communication with support provider, resulting in time lost

The story

This century-old, privately held company today ranks as the largest wholesale grocery distributor in the United States based on revenue. In 2018, the company boasted revenues of $28.1 billion, making it the 10th largest privately held company in the United States.

From its headquarters in Keene, NH, C&S delivers more than 140,000 unique items (referred to as SKUs or stock-keeping items)—ranging from meat, seafood, dairy, deli, candy, bakery, and produce, for example—from 50 high-tech facilities to some 6,500 corporate customers primarily in the Northeastern and Southeastern US states, as well as California and Hawaii.

Under its corporate motto, the company maintains four Core Initiatives: Eliminating Hunger, Strengthening Communities, Protecting the Environment, and Encouraging Volunteerism. In each, C&S works hard to “participate in our communities as an engaged, values-driven corporate citizen.”

In an industry where supply must meet demand in the most efficient way possible, C&S Wholesale Grocers places a high value on staying in touch and clear communication with its 17,000 employees, its 6,500 retail customers, and the broader community. With a complex system from several different carriers including Avaya, this wasn’t an easy thing to do.

Getting proper support for this system was even harder. With so many different providers, there was plenty of confusion within C&S regarding who it should call when things went wrong. This resulted in many hours lost, a devastating blow to add to the already high price tag attached to this support. What this grocer needed more than anything was a provider that could serve as a single point of contact.

C&S Wholesale Grocers’ search brought it at last to Continuant, a provider who could offer not only excellent service, but a single point of contact to make communication far easier. Continuant’s support saved this company both time and money with 24/7 access to onsite critical spares and remote simple service requests.

The result? “They are a good, happy customer,” says C&S’s Continuant Named Account Manager Daniel Christenson—who works hard to make sure C&S continues to enjoy Continuant’s world-class service.

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