Brands

How Snack Production Boosted Sales by 11% and Doubled Field Team Efficiency with effie

Implementing the electronic reporting system lets us save 72 man-hours per month.
— Oleksandr Chernobay, National Director of the Snack Production Group of Companies.

About the company

Snack Production is Ukraine’s leading snack producer, with branches in all regional centers. The company is expanding internationally, developing its presence in the German, Polish, and Kazakh markets. Snack Production is actively expanding its brand portfolio and successfully launching unrivaled products using state-of-the-art equipment with no analogs in Ukraine.

Before effie implementation, Snack Production operated with traditional, paper-based processes. Merchandisers would visit retail outlets with pen and paper, manually recording shelf data in handwritten tables with low precision. This information was later transferred to Excel files to generate basic reports — a process that took several days and significantly slowed down sales processes. The company lacked proper oversight of mobile teams’ discipline and real-time visibility into field operations.

The problem

As Snack Production pursued ambitious plans to transform the Ukrainian snack market structure, several critical operational challenges threatened their growth:

Lack of field control: No proper oversight of merchandisers’ work at points of sale (POS).
Inefficient paper-based workflow: Hand-written data collection and manual Excel entry created bottlenecks and errors.
Severe time delays: Processing analytical data took several days, significantly slowing sales growth.
Poor mobile team discipline: Unable to monitor route compliance, work hours, or POS visit frequency.

Limited shelf management: No systematic control of product availability, assortment compliance, or competitor activities.

Missed opportunities: Slow data processing meant delayed responses to stockouts, competitor actions, and market changes.

The impact was substantial: operational chaos, unnecessary expenditures on marketing budgets and man-hours, and missed revenue opportunities that hindered the company’s expansion goals.

How effie solved it

Starting with a successful pilot project in one region in 2016, effie implemented a comprehensive, modern reporting and monitoring system based on advanced AI technologies across Ukraine.

Key implementation facts

Effie created custom routes for each merchandiser and continuously monitored whether they followed these routes, while simultaneously tracking how much time employees spent at each retail outlet and how often they visited stores. This enabled managers to assign tasks digitally and automatically verify completion through photo reports.

For shelf management, effie monitored product availability according to the company’s assortment requirements. When products were missing, the system identified the reason for the discrepancy. The platform also controlled placement of new products, bestsellers, and promotional displays. It tracked competitor activities and automatically monitored both company and competitor prices.

This case demonstrated how critical it is to eliminate manual data bottlenecks in field operations. Our AI-powered automation transforms time-consuming processes into real-time insights.
— Effie Customer Success Team.

Results

The transformation delivered immediate and measurable impact across all key performance indicators.

Quantified results achieved within the first 2–3 months:

11% increase

In sales in retail chains due to stockout prevention and increased facing and stock

50% increase

In retail outlet coverage throughout Ukraine

36% increase

In retail outlet attendance discipline

8% increase

In compliance with the assortment matrix in retail outlets

3-fold decrease

In time spent on data collection

2-fold increase

In efficiently spent work hours by mobile teams in retail outlets

Thanks to effie, we have access to any data — about every employee, every retail chain, every retail outlet, and every type of product — at any moment in time.
— Oleksandr Chernobay, National Director of the Snack Production Group of Companies.

Further Plans

Snack Production continues its aggressive expansion strategy with effie as its technological partner. The company is pursuing new growth avenues while expanding into international markets, and effie’s platform supports its operations across multiple countries.

Ongoing partnership:

Continued expansion into German, Polish, and Kazakh markets.
Support for new brand portfolio launches.
Advanced employee training and 24/7 client support.
Integration of new product categories and retail channels.

What makes effie unique

Snack Production’s success showcases effie’s core differentiators:

Dynamic reporting system: Real-time monitoring enabling quick managerial decisions.
AI-powered automation eliminates manual bottlenecks and reduces human error.
Comprehensive visibility: From individual employees to entire retail networks, complete oversight.
Route optimization: A Systematic approach to field team discipline and efficiency.

24/7 support: Guaranteed immediate client support for seamless adoption.
Scalable platform: Supports expansion from regional to international operations.

The electronic reporting system saves 72 man-hours per month, demonstrating the platform’s immediate productivity impact while providing unprecedented operational visibility.