03/09/2023

Festival Foods Modernizes Communications With Zipline

Indie grocer said to have boosted store execution to 90% within weeks

Managing Editor

Zipline's Resource Library serves as a one-stop shop for all operational documentation and materials, allowing Festival Foods to have things in one place that’s easily accessible and searchable.

Family- and employee-owned Festival Foods has partnered with the Zipline platform to boost execution and create a clear line of sight among the independent grocer’s 8,000+ employees. The retailer previously relied solely on email to distribute information to front-line employees, which, in addition to its unique communication structure with autonomous departments, created obstacles in delivering time-sensitive tasks and tracking store execution rates.

After piloting Zipline in select stores, Festival Foods saw that the solution seamlessly simplified communication, increased employee accountability and improved store execution. According to the companies, just six weeks after a full-fleet launch of Zipline, Festival Foods saw 93% readership and 90% execution — more than three times the industry-average execution rate of 29%.

“It’s a rare thing for new software to help a team transition so smoothly,” noted Michael Siakpere, market store director at Festival Foods. “Zipline is the exception. We chose Zipline due to its superior functionality, the company’s reputation and most importantly, the general culture fit with Festival Foods. Through the pilot, tasks and duties never skipped a beat — because everything was in Zipline. Reliability is priceless, and Zipline gave us newfound confidence.”

The Zipline platform’s features include:

A Reporting Tool that offers visibility into readership and execution, allowing grocers to track progress and identify areas for improvement.
Surveys that can be used to provide stores with the ability to communicate what a well-done task “looks” like, as well as to receive real-time images of stores to visually verify execution in real time.
Groups with one-to-one or group messaging capabilities, keeping all communication within Zipline and reducing the number of emails, texts and phone calls associates must respond to in a day.
Store Audit, enabling associates to complete store audits and assessments on mobile devices for greatly improved efficiency.
Resource Library, a knowledge-based product that serves as a one-stop shop for all operational documentation and materials, allowing grocers to have things in one place that’s easily accessible and searchable.

“No store wants — or has the time — to fly blind in this tough market,” said Melissa Wong, CEO and co-founder of San Francisco-based Zipline. “It’s vital to set up your employees for success in order to have store success. In this case, Festival Foods was looking for a solution tailored to the needs of their established brand. We’re excited for Festival Foods to continue to expand and explore Zipline’s capabilities as a seamless solution for in-store execution, customer satisfaction and all-around employee happiness.”

De Pere, Wis.-based Festival Foods, which operates 40 stores throughout Wisconsin, is No. 93 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of thetop food and consumables retailers in North America.