Case Study: Southwest Traders achieves 99.95% service and cuts inventory days with Blue Ridge

How Southwest Traders Cut Inventory Days by 10 and Reached 99.95% Service Levels

Southwest Traders, a food distributor, was struggling with a manual procurement process in its aging AS/400 ERP, where buyers spent all week building purchase orders with no forecasting or replenishment guidance. As growth accelerated and new supplier onboarding loomed, the team faced service issues, rising inventory, and too few buyers to keep up.

Blue Ridge implemented demand planning and replenishment to automate exception-based buying, clean up item and vendor data, and give the team better visibility. The results were significant: service rose to 99.95%, days on hand dropped from the high 20s to about 18.5, aged inventory fell from 16% to 2%, and the buying team was reduced to four while supporting much more strategic work.

Southwest Traders

Brad Smith

SVP of Procurement & Sales