How Opillia Beer Achieved National Scale and Control with effie’s AI Platform

The report turned out perfect: the more sales representatives are involved, the more visits they make, the better they perform their work, the better the sales result. Thanks to effie, I can prove this dependence to everyone.

— Igor Pshonovsky, Head of the Sales Development Team at Opillia.

About the company

According to ancient recipes, Opillia is Ukraine’s leader in live beer brewing. Starting as a regional business in Ternopil, the company has become one of Ukraine’s most valuable brands, ranked 88th in the TOP 100 Most Expensive Brands in Ukraine with a brand value of $6.2 million. In 2022 alone, Opillia produced 75 million liters of beer — enough to supply more than 5 Oktoberfests.

Before implementing effie, Opillia’s business processes were largely paper-based and manual. Sales managers would set assignments on paper without proper follow-up control, shelf work lacked systematic monitoring, and there was no real-time visibility into field operations across different regions. This traditional approach created operational chaos and made scaling beyond their regional base difficult.

The problem

As Opillia aimed to scale from regional to national and eventually international markets, they faced several critical challenges:

• Lack of field control: No systematic way to monitor sales representatives, distributors, and agency merchandisers across expanding territories.
• Poor shelf management: Unable to ensure proper product placement and availability across retail outlets.
• Paper-based chaos: Manual processes resulted in missed assignments, inadequate follow-up, and a lack of accountability.
• Competitive pressure: Strong international competitors with decades of market experience required Opillia to dramatically improve operational efficiency.
• Scaling challenges: Traditional methods were unable to support the company’s ambitious growth plans, which aimed to reach national and international markets.

The impact was significant: unnecessary expenditures on marketing budgets, man-hours, and transportation, as well as missed revenue opportunities and an inability to make data-driven decisions quickly enough to compete effectively.

How effie solved it

Starting with a pilot project in 2019, effie implemented a comprehensive AI-based platform that automated multiple business processes and provided real-time visibility across all operations.

Key changes in processes:

1. Automated field control: Real-time monitoring of sales representatives, distributors, and merchandisers across all locations.
2. Digital shelf management: Online monitoring and analytics of shelf work with regional performance comparisons.
3. Paperless processes: Complete digitization of assignment management with real-time tracking and fulfillment monitoring.
4. Customized reporting tools: Store Check Reports and Questionnaire Results dashboards tailored specifically for Opillia’s workflow.
5. Flexible COVID-19 adaptation: Platform flexibility allowed quick adaptation when POS visit restrictions were imposed during the pandemic.

Results

The transformation was dramatic. Within months of implementation, Opillia achieved comprehensive control and visibility across all operations.

Before → After:

• Paper-based processes → Paperless processes: Eliminated missed assignments and poor follow-up through real-time monitoring.
• Poor shelf work → Systematic improvement: Online monitoring with analytics showing which regions perform best and which need attention.
• Operational chaos → Disciplined processes: Clear workflows with reduced ineffective workload and more space for growth.
• Limited visibility → Real-time analytics: Detailed analytics at city, regional, and national levels.
• Reactive management → Proactive control: Monitoring real-time order fulfillment and trade marketing activities.

The platform enabled Opillia to successfully navigate COVID-19 restrictions while maintaining operational efficiency and continuing its growth trajectory.

We gained control and transparency we never had before. Effie transformed our approach to trade marketing from reactive to proactive.

— Igor Pshonovsky, Head of the Sales Development Team at Opillia.

Further plans

Opillia continues to expand rapidly, welcoming new sales representatives and merchandisers monthly, all gaining access to the effie mobile application. The company plans to connect all partners across every region to the service.

What makes effie unique

Opillia’s success demonstrates effie’s key competitive advantages:

• AI-powered monitoring: Real-time control standards without a human error factor.
• Photo and POS data integration: Complete visibility into actual retail conditions.
• Customizable platform: Adapts to specific business rhythms and processes.
• Quick deployment: Rapid implementation with immediate impact.
• Comprehensive analytics: From individual outlets to national-level insights.
• Pandemic resilience: Platform flexibility enables adaptation to change market conditions.

The Store Check Report functionality is instrumental in receiving field information and transmitting it to distributors. At the same time, the Questionnaire Results dashboards provide weekly insights into retail outlets, improving overall visit dynamics.