Coles Replaces Hours of Manual Meat Planning with Ever.Ag's S&OP SaaS
Coles partners with Ever.Ag to deploy its S&OP SaaS platform, automating complex meat supply chain planning and paving the way for value-based optimization.
Key Takeaways
- Coles partners with Ever.Ag to deploy its S&OP SaaS platform, automating complex meat supply chain planning and paving the way for value-based optimization.
Key Intelligence
Key Facts
- 1Coles Supermarkets partnered with Ever.Ag to apply advanced data science and optimization modeling to its fresh meat supply chain, covering beef, lamb, and pork categories.
- 2Historically, meat supply planning required hours of manual coordination, spreadsheets, and deep institutional knowledge; the process is now automated via Ever.Ag’s S&OP platform.
- 3The platform automatically ingests and models operational data, producing optimized production and deployment plans with predictive insights and built-in compliance rules.
- 4Ever.Ag CEO Scott Sexton called meat “one of the most complex supply chains in food retail” and highlighted the role of data science at scale.
- 5Coles Executive General Manager Martin Smithson said the partnership aims to ensure the freshest cuts are available at the right price for customers.
- 6Coles and Ever.Ag plan to transition from volume-based to value-based optimization, incorporating profitability, operational efficiency, customer outcomes, and environmental impact into planning models.
Analysis
For SaaS providers targeting traditional industries, the partnership between Coles and Ever.Ag demonstrates how cloud-based optimization platforms can tackle one of the most intricate supply chains—fresh meat. This deployment highlights the growing demand for advanced analytics in sectors where spreadsheets still reign.
On June 24, 2026, Coles Supermarkets, one of Australia’s largest grocery retailers, announced a technology partnership with Ever.Ag, a global agri-food software company, to modernize its fresh meat supply chain planning. The collaboration, disclosed via press release, aims to replace manual, spreadsheet-driven processes with automated data science and optimization modelling across beef, lamb and pork categories—a significant digital leap for a segment where perishability, demand volatility and compliance constraints create exceptional complexity.
On June 24, 2026, Coles Supermarkets, one of Australia’s largest grocery retailers, announced a technology partnership with Ever.Ag, a global agri-food software company, to modernize its fresh meat supply chain planning.
For years, planning the flow of fresh meat from abattoirs to supermarket shelves required hours of manual coordination, spreadsheets and deep institutional knowledge held by seasoned planners. The new approach leverages Ever.Ag’s Sales & Operations Planning (S&OP) platform to automatically ingest and model data from Coles’ operations, generating optimized production and deployment plans that include predictive insights and built-in regulatory compliance rules. According to the companies, this shift delivers faster, smarter operations that directly support Coles’ customer promise of freshest cuts at the right price.
The partnership underscores a broader trend: traditional retailers and food producers are turning to specialized SaaS solutions to attack entrenched inefficiencies. Ever.Ag, armed with decades of domain expertise across dairy, livestock, crops and agribusiness, positions its platform as a bridge between farm and consumer. CEO Scott Sexton emphasized that “meat is one of the most complex supply chains in food retail,” and that applying data science at scale demonstrates what is possible when advanced analytics meet real-world operations. Coles’ Executive General Manager Supermarket Operations, Martin Smithson, reinforced the customer-centric ambition, stating the initiative helps ensure the freshest cuts arrive at an accessible price point.
From a market perspective, the immediate benefits for Coles include reduced waste, improved stock availability and more precise alignment of supply with consumer demand—critical advantages in a fiercely competitive Australian grocery market where margins are thin and shopper loyalty is hard-won. For Ever.Ag, securing a partner of Coles’ scale validates its technology and opens doors to other retailers grappling with similar fresh-food complexities.
Yet the most ambitious element of the announcement is the forward-looking roadmap: the companies plan to migrate from volume-based optimization to value-based optimization. This next phase would incorporate profitability, operational efficiency, customer outcomes and environmental impact into the same planning models, enabling scenario simulation and the ability to anticipate market swings. Rather than simply moving the most boxes, planners could weigh trade-offs between cost, freshness, carbon footprint and margin, creating a multi-dimensional decision framework. Such capabilities could allow Coles to dynamically balance commercial goals with sustainability commitments—an increasingly important metric for investors and consumers alike.
What to Watch
The challenges, however, are non-trivial. Integrating a new S&OP platform into an established retailer’s legacy systems can be complex, and the meat supply chain’s inherent unpredictability—driven by weather, disease outbreaks and shifting trade policies—means that even the best models require constant recalibration. Additionally, the move to value-based optimization demands accurate and real-time data on factors like carbon cost and customer lifetime value, which may not yet be fully mature. Still, the partnership signals that Coles is willing to bet on advanced analytics to differentiate its fresh offering.
Looking ahead, the collaboration could set a precedent for how grocers worldwide tackle the intersection of perishable logistics and sustainability. If the value-based optimization materializes on schedule, Coles might not only improve its own bottom line but also raise the bar for supplier collaboration, pushing the entire meat value chain toward greater transparency and efficiency. In an era where consumers increasingly demand both quality and responsibility, technology partnerships of this nature may become a strategic imperative rather than a competitive nice-to-have.
Cite This Page
"Coles Replaces Hours of Manual Meat Planning with Ever.Ag's S&OP SaaS." SaaS Intelligence Brief, July 27, 2026. https://getsaasbrief.com/story/coles-everag-saas-meat-supply-chain
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