Podcast Episode Summary

Leaders in Tech and Ecommerce – Episode #74

Guest: Johanna Småros, Co-founder at RELEX Solutions

Host: Andrei Palamari (Alcott Global)
Release Date: June 1, 2023

Episode Overview

This episode features Johanna Småros, Co-founder of RELEX Solutions, in a wide-ranging conversation covering company milestones, product differentiation, the impact of the pandemic, culture, sustainability, and RELEX’s evolving mission. Johanna provides deep insights into the challenges and opportunities facing tech-driven supply chain and retail planning, with a focus on actionable client impact, responsible growth, and future innovations.

Key Topics & Discussion Points

1. Company Mission and Its Evolution

• RELEX’s North Star remains unchanged since its inception: Minimizing waste in the consumer goods value chain, and being a fair, responsible company to work with and for.

  "We want to be a good company to work with and work for and kind of set an example... for treating customers and colleagues and partners fairly and with respect and being a good corporate citizen." (Johanna, 01:25)

• Twofold ambition:
  • Minimize operational costs and waste (products, time, capacity)
  • Exemplify respectful treatment of customers, colleagues, and partners.

2. Growth Milestones and Foundation Launch

• Significant funding and expansion:
  • €500 million funding round (early 2022, led by Blackstone Growth) accelerated investment in R&D and go-to-market.
  • Workforce grew to nearly 2,000 (up from ~800 three years before).
  • Rapid expansion, especially notable growth in APAC.
• RELEX Foundation for a Better Future:
  • Co-founders donated €10 million in cash and nearly €100 million in company shares.
  • Focus: Mitigate climate change, biodiversity loss, reduce inequality and poverty, and support youth at risk.

    "We donated 10 million euros in cash and almost 100 million in shares... the aim to mitigate climate change and biodiversity loss and reduce inequality and poverty..." (Johanna, 04:23)

3. Navigating Major Challenges (Pandemic & Beyond)

• RELEX handled the pandemic relatively smoothly due to prior distributed, remote work experience.
• Clients faced extreme market volatility (e.g., panic buying, shifting demands, inflation).
• Pandemic highlighted the crucial need for supply chain visibility, agility, and rapid reaction.
• Demand for RELEX’s solutions grew as pain points became clearer.

  "I don't think we've seen anything like that before... from our perspective, something that's really highlighted the need for being able to really see what happens across the company or the whole supply chain..." (Johanna, 07:18)

4. Differentiation: Product and Partnerships

• Client-centric, problem-solving culture: Deep focus on understanding and solving client-specific challenges, rather than hyping the technology.

  "We are laser focused on really understanding what moves the needle for our clients." (Johanna, 10:02)

• Bridging planning silos: Integrating merchandising, supply chain, and operations planning for holistic value creation.

  "When you can start linking these to each other, you can actually unlock so much value... suddenly release millions in saved cost and nobody needs to work any harder." (Johanna, 11:28)

• Continuous innovation: Every problem solved unlocks new areas for improvement.

5. The Rise of Supply Chain Collaboration

• Pandemic finally pushed organizations to invest in genuine data sharing and collaborative planning.

  "Now I feel that we are finally there. People are finally seeing the value of sharing, for example, forecasts and availability information with each other. And the technology is finally there..." (Johanna, 14:17)

6. Customer Impact Stories

Johanna cites multiple examples that demonstrate RELEX’s real-world impact:

• Large retailers:
  • Lidl, Ahold Delhaize USA, Family Dollar – scale amplifies the absolute value delivered.
• Sustainability-focused SME:
  • Amatier Origen (Spain): End-to-end supply chain integration for organic groceries, reducing waste and delivering fresher products.
• AI-driven optimization:
  • S Group (Finland): AI-enhanced store replenishment planning, minimizing staff walking time, cutting costs, and boosting efficiency.
• Machine learning-powered forecasting:
  • Packaged meat manufacturer: Weekly forecast accuracy over 98%, critical for sustainability and profitability.

  "For last year... we helped our clients reduce food waste by 11 million kilos. So that's like a thousand trucks." (Johanna, 21:29)

7. Quantifiable Sustainability Impact

• In 2022, RELEX clients reduced food waste by 11 million kilos (~1,000 truckloads).
• Tangible benefit for both planet and business—less food waste, direct savings, and measurable sustainability impact.

  "We throw food away, it's such a stupid thing to do, but it's also very valuable for the clients. So producing food waste is like shoveling money into the garbage bin." (Johanna, 21:55)

8. Company Culture & Values

• Rapid headcount growth brings cultural challenges: Culture must continually evolve.
• Five Core Values:
  1. Customer is a friend: Respect and trust in client relationships.
  2. Colleague is a friend: Mutual respect in the workplace.
  3. Provide measurable value: Focus on impact over vanity projects.
  4. Stop stupid things: Regularly question legacy processes, embrace change.
  5. Life is supposed to be fun: Work should be rewarding, with genuine work-life balance.

  "We have our five core values... we don't want to do vanity projects... we stop stupid things..." (Johanna, 23:36 - 27:48)

• Emphasis on work/life balance as a norm for all, including parental leave for both genders.

  "It's super important that not just the mothers, but also the fathers take time off and spend time with their families..." (Johanna, 27:28)

• Internal mantra: "Humble world domination."

9. Looking Ahead: What Excites Johanna

• Advancement of planning technology:
  • Full integration of promotional planning to drive sales (up to 30% uplift) and profit (up to 80%) through data science.

  "The results we're seeing are pretty incredible, like 30% sales uplift and 80% profit uplift from promotions..." (Johanna, 29:22)

• Leveraging new data sources:
  • Machine learning enables plug-and-play data integrations for ongoing accuracy improvements.
• AI and large language models:
  • Internal “RELEX GPT” already used for documentation and best practice queries, soon to be rolled out to clients.

  "We've set up our own RELEX GPT that we have now been using internally... soon going to launch it to clients to use as well." (Johanna, 31:30)

Notable Quotes

• "That was kind of important to us to make sure that people can feel that they've not just been building RELEX, the company, but they've also enabled this pretty beautiful thing..." (Johanna, 05:52)
• "When you can start linking these to each other, you can actually unlock so much value... nobody needs to work any harder. You just create a smarter process." (Johanna, 12:00)
• "Food waste is one of the most tangible things that we can see the impact in... for 2022, we estimate we helped our clients reduce food waste by 11 million kilos—like a thousand trucks." (Johanna, 21:29)
• "I think documentation will actually increase in value so much going forward and that's good news for all of us." (Johanna, 32:22)
• "Humble world domination in supply chain and retail planning." (Johanna, 02:35; 28:23)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 00:26 – Johanna introduces herself and RELEX’s core mission
• 03:11 – Funding, expansion, and launch of the RELEX Foundation
• 07:18 – Pandemic impact and new supply chain challenges
• 10:02 – Product and client relationship differentiators
• 14:17 – Rise of real supply chain collaboration
• 16:11 – Customer success stories
• 21:29 – Quantifiable impact on food waste reduction
• 23:36 – Company culture, values, and evolution
• 28:56 – Future focus, technology, and RELEX GPT
• 32:29 – Value of documentation and integrating AI

Episode Takeaways

• RELEX’s sustained growth is tightly tied to its clear values, client-centric innovation, and responsible expansion.
• Real-world, measurable impacts—especially in food waste reduction and operational efficiencies—are core metrics.
• Culture and work-life balance are foundational, not secondary.
• The next frontier: deeper AI integration, advanced planning, and maximizing value from new data.

For further details and more episodes, visit: alcottglobal.com