Chefs’ Warehouse Partners with RELEX to Boost Fresh Food Availability and Operational Efficiency
Chefs’ Warehouse, a leading specialty wholesale food distributor serving thousands of customers across North America and in international markets, has taken a major step toward strengthening its supply chain operations with the selection of RELEX Solutions as its enterprise-wide forecasting and replenishment platform. RELEX, known globally for its unified supply chain and retail planning capabilities, will support the distributor’s efforts to optimize fresh food availability, streamline replenishment processes, and enhance the efficiency of its complex multi-node distribution network.
The decision marks a significant investment in digital transformation for Chefs’ Warehouse, whose operations span 49 distribution centers and encompass more than 88,000 SKUs across a diverse set of product categories. The company supplies premium and specialty ingredients—including fresh seafood, meats, dairy, produce, and gourmet pantry staples—to a wide range of customers such as independent restaurants, national and regional restaurant groups, hotels, country clubs, caterers, and high-end retail food markets. With its reputation built on delivering hard-to-source products and exceptional service levels, the company must maintain precision and speed in an industry where freshness, timing, and consistency are non-negotiable.
Chefs’ Warehouse operates within one of the most challenging environments in the food supply chain. Unlike traditional dry goods or shelf-stable distribution models, fresh and specialty items require intense coordination across procurement, warehousing, logistics, and customer delivery. Short shelf lives, volatile demand patterns, and frequent product turnover make planning particularly complex. Overlaying these challenges is the company’s broad network of ERP systems and legacy planning tools across multiple business units that have grown both organically and through acquisitions over the years. These fragmented systems have made it increasingly difficult to maintain unified visibility and ensure reliable product availability as the company continues to scale.
Recognizing that a modernized, integrated planning platform was essential to sustain its expansion, Chefs’ Warehouse embarked on an extensive search for a solution capable of supporting real-time demand sensing, dynamic replenishment, and fresh-food-driven forecasting. The company sought a partner with deep expertise in the unique demands of perishable supply chains and the technological sophistication to help streamline operations across a large, fast-moving distribution network.
RELEX Solutions emerged as the preferred choice due to its demonstrated leadership in fresh food planning and its robust capabilities in managing complex wholesale and retail environments. The RELEX platform will serve as a unified planning engine for Chefs’ Warehouse, helping the company consolidate demand signals across multiple business units and customer channels, increase forecast accuracy, and improve end-to-end inventory visibility. Through advanced analytics and automation, RELEX will enable more consistent and centralized governance of replenishment processes, reducing planning variability and helping the company ensure that high-value specialty items reach customers at peak freshness.
One of the key advantages of the RELEX platform is its ability to model hub-and-spoke distribution strategies—an important component for organizations that operate numerous distribution nodes supplying both regional and local markets. By simulating and optimizing these distribution flows, RELEX will help Chefs’ Warehouse align its inventory more efficiently throughout its network, reduce excess stock, minimize spoilage, and improve overall service levels. This is especially important for fresh categories where the cost of waste can be high and the speed of fulfillment directly impacts quality and customer satisfaction.
The implementation is expected to create operational benefits across departments, from purchasing teams that need better visibility into supply requirements, to warehouse teams managing daily inbound and outbound movements, to sales and account managers committed to ensuring exceptional service for culinary professionals. With more accurate and unified planning, teams will be better equipped to manage product flow, respond to market changes, and support customer needs proactively.
Ken Klauser, Vice President of Supply Chain and Pricing at Chefs’ Warehouse, underscored the company’s focus on strengthening its fast-paced supply chain to support long-term strategic growth. “We’re focused on driving greater efficiency and consistency across our fast-moving, fresh-driven supply chain,” Klauser said. “RELEX brings the expertise and tools we need to unify planning across our network and support our long-term growth.” He emphasized that improving end-to-end visibility and establishing consistent planning frameworks will be central to enhancing operational performance as the company expands into new markets and categories.
RELEX Solutions leadership echoed the importance of the partnership and the alignment between the two organizations. Frank Lord, Chief Revenue Officer at RELEX Solutions, highlighted the complexity and demands of the segment in which Chefs’ Warehouse operates. “Chefs’ Warehouse operates in one of the most demanding segments of food distribution, where accuracy and speed are critical,” Lord noted. “Our deep capabilities in fresh food planning, combined with a strong track record and broad customer base in food wholesale, gave them the confidence that we could deliver at scale and help them reach their operational goals.”
Lord added that RELEX’s experience serving food retailers, convenience operators, and specialized distributors provides a strong foundation for supporting Chefs’ Warehouse. The company’s platform is built to automate and optimize key supply chain decisions, from forecasting to replenishment to allocation, while adapting to the unique nuances of fresh item behavior. This combination of automation, flexibility, and analytics is designed to help organizations make smarter, faster decisions while reducing the administrative burden on planning teams.
As the foodservice distribution landscape continues to evolve—with fluctuating demand patterns, increased customer expectations, and a growing emphasis on sustainability—technology-driven planning tools are becoming essential for maintaining reliability and operational resilience. The partnership with RELEX positions Chefs’ Warehouse to advance its mission of delivering exceptional specialty products to chefs and culinary professionals while minimizing waste, improving efficiency, and fostering scalable growth.
By adopting a unified supply chain planning platform, Chefs’ Warehouse will be better equipped to synchronize demand forecasts with procurement strategies, optimize warehouse inventories, and enhance customer service levels—all while supporting its broader goals of reducing operational complexity and streamlining decision-making. As both organizations work together through the implementation and refinement process, the initiative is expected to create long-term value not only for Chefs’ Warehouse but also for its extensive network of culinary customers who rely on timely delivery of premium, fresh ingredients.
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