Real World Use Cases: B&G Foods, Jordan TM, NAFTZ & QSCC

Foodservice and retail operators face the same pressure from different angles. Sourcing events still move through Excel. Trucks still return empty. Distribution centers still discover inventory gaps after the sale is already lost. The three cases below show operators attacking those points with different tools. None of them removes the underlying constraints of capacity, cost and timing. Each shows where a specific workflow changed.

Wendy's QSCC Centralizes Sourcing Across 33 Distribution Centers

Quality Supply Chain Co-op, Inc. (QSCC) is the purchasing cooperative that supplies more than 6,400 Wendy’s restaurants across North America. It is the second-largest co-op in foodservice, with nearly $4 billion in buying power. It manages categories from food and packaging to logistics and facilities, across 33 distribution centers, more than 400 suppliers and nearly 1,500 ship-from locations. A single sourcing event previously required massive data wrangling and lengthy Excel analysis. The risk was inconsistent sourcing, missed savings and disruptions to restaurant supply.

QSCC deployed JAGGAER’s Advanced Sourcing Optimizer (ASO) to bring dispersed processes into one workflow. Buyers and suppliers share the same space for complex RFPs. Suppliers can use Expressive Bidding to offer creative pricing, discounts or conditional packages. The system provides data-driven rate suggestions, capacity analysis and what-if scenario modeling so teams can compare strategies in real time. Joe Nelson, lead analyst in finance at QSCC, said in written comments provided to The Supply Chainer: “It’s night and day compared to the old Excel-based process. With JAGGAER, it’s so fast, so easy, and the results come out in a ready-to-read report.”

More than 30% of QSCC’s materials are now sourced through advanced techniques. The company reported 15% savings in certain categories within a single year. Event turnaround is faster. Freight lanes have been optimized to increase full-truckload shipments and reduce fuel costs. The platform has become the backbone for large RFPs. Looking ahead, QSCC expects continued pressure from inflation, regulation and sustainability targets. It plans to deepen digital adoption and explore AI-driven decision support. The tool changed the speed and visibility of the sourcing event. It did not remove the need to balance franchisee requirements against supplier capacity.

Jordan TM Fills Empty Miles Between England and Scotland

Jordan TM began seven years ago as one man and one truck. Founder Yordan Velkov drove all day and spent evenings looking for a load home. His son Daniel Velkov, now accounts and finance director, said in a response shared with The Supply Chainer: “There would be some days where you just can’t find anything, so you’re going to have to run empty 50, 100 miles.” Within weeks of buying the first truck, on another haulier’s recommendation, the Bathgate firm joined Haulage Exchange.

When COVID increased demand, the platform gave Jordan TM work to grow and a place to place its own surplus loads. General manager Colin Wilson said in the same submission: “The Trustd side of HX is immense. We know we’re dealing with professional companies similar to ourselves. The security alone is priceless.” One customer found on the platform started with a single load and now books 10 to 15 a week. Today the company runs 51 vehicles and employs 72 people, moving goods between England and Scotland for Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Morrisons and Asda. It added 20 new vehicles last year.

Since joining Haulage Exchange, Jordan TM has cut empty running by 65%, saving an estimated £20,000 a month. Loads booked through the platform brought in around £200,000 in revenue over the past 12 months. Business development manager Gordon Foster said in comments supplied to The Supply Chainer: “Margins are so tight. Any dead mileage is just eating into your profit. Having the ability to fill those empty miles really is invaluable.” The platform did not create demand. It gave a small operator a way to match loads that already existed and to reduce the miles that produce no revenue.

Delaware FTZ No. 99 Uses Automated Inventory Control for Customs Compliance

Across Delaware FTZ No. 99, businesses use U.S. Foreign-Trade Zone procedures to manage imported materials, inventory and customs obligations. Automated inventory-control systems, often integrated with warehouse management or enterprise resource planning software, help operators track goods, reconcile records and maintain the audit trail required by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The result is greater inventory visibility, less manual reconciliation, fewer documentation errors and cash-flow improvements. Delaware ranked among the nation’s top 25 states for U.S. FTZ production-related merchandise received in 2024.

Patty Cannon, director of special projects and grantee administrator for Delaware FTZ No. 99 and new board chair of the National Association of Foreign-Trade Zones, said in written comments submitted to The Supply Chainer: “A U.S. FTZ is more than a place to store imported goods or assemble imported parts, it’s a framework for managing cargo, inventory, regulatory compliance and costs more strategically. When accurate technology and consistent, compliant procedures work together, like we see in Delaware, businesses can maintain tighter control over merchandise while making better-informed decisions about when and how goods move into U.S. commerce.”

The systems do not change the underlying customs rules. They reduce the time spent reconstructing records when CBP asks for them and give operators a clearer view of when goods should enter U.S. commerce.

B&G Foods Surfaces DC Exceptions Before Product Spoils

B&G Foods manages inventory for category-leading brands including Crisco, Cream of Wheat and Clabber Girl across stores nationwide. With dozens of regional distribution centers and hundreds of active SKUs, identifying critical inventory gaps previously required hours of manual analysis each week. Exceptions that deviate from normal performance were easy to lose in spreadsheets. Out-of-stocks and waste both followed from delayed visibility.

B&G Foods uses the UNFI Insights platform, developed by Crisp, which provides real-time DC inventory and on-order data. AI Agents launched to UNFI suppliers in September 2026. B&G Foods was an early beta user. The agents surface verifiable recommendations that address supply gaps. Meghana Shivaramu, sales analyst at B&G Foods, created an exception surfacing report that analyzes inventory data for all products across UNFI DCs. The report flags priority gaps so teams can act immediately. She said in written comments submitted to The Supply Chainer: “We’ve been using Crisp AI as part of our sales analytics workflow, and it helps us get to answers much faster than digging through reports manually, and uncover insights more efficiently.”

The report surfaced 94 priority SKU and DC exceptions in minutes. Weekly analysis fell from six hours to five minutes of run time. It flagged overstocked DCs so product could be cleared before it spoiled. The tool compresses the time between data and action on inventory already in the network. It does not change the underlying forecast or the capacity of the DC.

The three cases sit at different points on the same chain. JAGGAER’s optimizer and Haulage Exchange both reduce the cost of moving material that already has a destination: one by changing how the contract is built, the other by filling the empty return. Crisp’s agents act after the product has reached the DC, surfacing exceptions that spreadsheets buried. Operators still face inflation, tight margins and capacity limits. What changed in each case is the time and data required to act on a decision that was already available. The remaining operational question is whether those faster decisions stay aligned once the material leaves the sourcing event, the truck or the DC.