Case Study: Hankkija achieves over 99% availability and 17% inventory reduction with RELEX Solutions

Hankkija Full-service Agricultural Store Chain Transforms Its Procurement Process

Hankkija is Finland’s leading agricultural store chain (53 stores, ~800 employees) owned by Danish Agro. After the 2014 change of ownership it assumed responsibility for purchasing and supply chain operations but relied on a manual AS/400 ordering system that couldn’t support automatic replenishment or seasonal procurement. With highly seasonal sales (about two‑thirds in early summer) Hankkija needed to centralize ordering, improve in‑store availability, cut inventory tied up in stock, and free store staff for customer service.

Hankkija piloted and then rolled out RELEX’s supply chain planning and automated replenishment across product groups and stores between 2013–2015, with an automation pilot in 2016. The solution built orders around store size and sales history, automated pre‑season allocations and replenishment, and left staff able to review orders. Pilot results: store availability rose to over 99% (+1.25%), inventory value in pilot stores fell 16.5% (while non‑pilot stores saw availability drop ~2% and inventory rise 5.3%), and the automation saved the equivalent of two full‑time staff annually; the approach was extended to the whole chain.

Hankkija

Aleksi Heikura

Systems Expert