Insider Brief
- Simbe has partnered with Country Supplier to deploy its autonomous AI-powered inventory robot, Tally, across farm supply stores under the C-A-L Ranch and Coastal Farm & Ranch brands, improving on-shelf availability by 25% and price accuracy by 90%.
- Tally scans store shelves multiple times daily, automating labor-intensive inventory tasks, enhancing efficiency, and providing real-time insights while maintaining seamless operations for large rural stores with diverse SKUs.
- This partnership highlights Simbe’s accelerated growth in 2024, following a $50M Series C round led by Goldman Sachs, with deployments expanding globally across major retailers and new verticals, transforming in-store operations through AI and automation.
PRESS RELEASE — Simbe, the Store IntelligenceTM leader powering the largest number of retail banners in the world, has announced its expansion into farm supply and a partnership with Country Supplier. After a successful proof of value, Country Supplier, a leading farm and ranch retailer with stores across Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Washington will deploy Simbe technology across additional locations under the C-A-L Ranch and Coastal Farm & Ranch brands.
Country Supplier Enhances Shopping Experience Through AI and Automation
Farm supply stores are vital to local communities, providing essential products that support daily operations for farms and local businesses. To meet seasonal demand, store shelves need to be well-stocked with the right products, at the right time, and at price points that customers expect. However, inventory management for farm suppliers can be challenging due to store size and product volume. It often takes two weeks to conduct manual scans of stores carrying 100K+ SKUs.
Tally, the world’s first autonomous, item-scanning robot that powers Simbe’s store intelligence platform, utilizes AI and computer vision to scan the store multiple times a day and read tags on various fixture types, including shelves, hooks, bins, and top stock. Tally captures and processes images of shelf conditions in near real-time, translating inventory data into actionable insights available on the Simbe platform and the Simbe Mobile app. C-A-L Ranch and Coastal Farm & Home stores participating in the proof of value have already seen significant results, including a 25% improvement in on-shelf availability and a 90% improvement in price accuracy.
Simbe’s new offering of an adaptable Farm Supply intelligence solution empowers teams to automate manual, labor-intensive inventory tasks and focus on high-value activities that enhance both the associate and shopper experience.
Many farm supply stores also operate within co-ops, with locations dispersed across rural areas and multiple states. With Simbe Virtual Tour, retail executives view and walk stores remotely, reducing travel while optimizing layouts, ensuring compliance, and facilitating faster decision-making across locations. For retailers operating in a fast-paced, seasonal market, Simbe delivers in-store visibility to anticipate and meet evolving customer demands.
“Tally is redefining the way we run our business while working within our operational boundaries,” said Mandi Dyer, Chief Operating Officer, Country Supplier. “The Simbe teams’ dedication to understanding all aspects of our business needs and goals was instrumental in Tally’s successful implementation.”
Over the next few months, Country Supplier will continue integrating Tally into all stores. Learn more about Simbe’s Farm Supply solution in this video case study.
Simbe’s In-Store Intelligence Empowers Strong Market Benefits
Demand for automation across retail sectors continues to rise as business leaders look to enhance performance through strategic technological investments that elevate the shopping experience, improve store teams’ job satisfaction, and reclaim revenue. Only Simbe has the proven capabilities, global production resources, multiple chain-wide deployments, and numerous customer successes to meet today’s surging demand for retail technology.
For Simbe, 2024 has been a year of accelerated growth, highlighting maturation in the retail technology industry. In October, the company closed a $50M Series C round proactively led by Goldman Sachs, underscoring Simbe’s tangible impact on all facets of the retail supply chain. In the last year, Simbe has won and scaled more new and existing retailer and banner logos than the previous three years combined, including CarrefourSA, Albertsons’ United Supermarkets, TOPS Friendly Markets, Price Chopper Supermarkets-Market 32, SpartanNash’s Family Fare, Martin’s, D&W Fresh Market, VG’s Grocery, Wakefern’s ShopRite, and many more.
With significant traction across three continents, Simbe’s global customers achieve substantial profitability improvements, while delivering top-grade store team and shopper experiences. Across deployments, the Tally fleet has:
- Completed 1.1M traversals in 3M autonomous hours, the equivalent to 348 years
- Traveled 1.2M km, the equivalent of circling the globe over 94 times.
- Scanned 12.5B price tags, identifying over 88M errors and enabling store associates to promptly fix them, guaranteeing customers confidence they’re getting the best price.
- Ingested data from 15K+ brands and vendors into the system, enabling unique insights that can be translated to vendor partners to strengthen supply chain operations across the retail ecosystem.
“Our enterprising retail partners across a growing number of verticals are ushering in a new era of retail technology and automation,” said Brad Bogolea, Simbe’s Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “2024 has been another monumental year of growth for Simbe, as innovative industry leaders increasingly recognize the real, wide-reaching impact that AI and automation have on every layer of their operations. With Simbe’s in-store intelligence, our partners are thriving in a competitive retail landscape while elevating the in-store experience for all involved.”
To learn more about Simbe’s Store Intelligence platform, visit www.simberobotics.com.
About Simbe
Only Simbe’s Store IntelligenceTM platform offers multimodal solutions to increase retail brands’ performance with unprecedented visibility and near real-time insights. Cutting-edge AI and robotics power business-critical intelligence that streamlines inventory management and store operations, while elevating store teams and shoppers’ experiences.
Simbe’s comprehensive platform includes the world’s first autonomous, item-scanning robot, Tally, which identifies exact product location, stock level, and pricing & promotion information with market-leading computer vision. Simbe works with top global brands in the US, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.simberobotics.com.
About Country Supplier
Country Supplier has been part of the farm and ranch community since 1959 and is owned and operated in the west. The company operates 55 stores under the C-A-L Ranch and Coastal Farm and Ranch brands in Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon and Washington and employs over two-thousand people specializing in farm, ranch, and outdoor lifestyle products. With a legacy spanning decades, Country Supplier is all about offering top-notch products, friendly service and a real love for the rural way of life.
Contact Info
Caitlin Allen
SVP of Market
[email protected]
