Case Study: Albertsons, Inc.

A ten-year partnership with Lowry helps Albertsons a competitive technology edge in a tough retail market.

Albertsons, Inc., is one of the world’s largest food and drug retailers today. In business since 1939, Albertsons employs more than 200,000 associates in its network of 2,300 stores across the U.S. Its nationwide banners include Albertsons, Acme, Shaw's, Jewel-Osco, Sav-on Drugs, Osco Drug, and Star Market, as well as Super Saver and Bristol Farms, which are operated independently.

For the past ten years, Lowry has served as a value-added supplier to Albertsons and its seventeen primary Distribution Centers nationwide. Lowry provides all of Albertsons’ direct thermal labels, thermal bar code printers and repair services.

As truckloads arrive at Albertsons’ Distribution Centers, unique labels are generated for each pallet of goods based upon the Purchase Order (PO). The bar code labels include information such as the PO number, reserve slot, receiving date, description of items, and a bar-code license plate that will help track the products throughout the system.

The bar code labels are printed and applied to each pallet in Receiving. The labels are then scanned as the pallets are received into inventory. When a pallet is moved from one slot to another (to replenish a pick slot, for example) the transporter scans the bar code and confirms that the correct pallet was selected.

In addition to pallets, Albertsons applies bar code labels to items. “Because some of our products such as batteries and bottled water have an extensive shelf life, we need to ensure than the image does not fade over time and that the bar code remains easily scanable,” said Kevin Alves, Manager, Information Technology for Albertsons Plant City, FL Distribution Center. “To date, we have not had a problem with images fading, and the direct thermal labels retain a strong image even up to a year after printing.”

Lowry Labeling helped Albertsons to identify a temperature-resistant label stock and adhesive so that labels adhere in its freezers — where temperatures drop to minus 20 degrees — and labels adhere and tolerate the damp environment in its produce coolers.

In order to gain a competitive edge in today’s tough retail market, Albertson created a set of strategic imperatives including a company-wide focus on technology and aggressive cost and process control. Lowry has helped Albertsons to meet its imperatives and become the world’s top food and drug retailers.