Safe Catch commands complex retail waters with Crisp real-time data
Advanced forecasting and fill-rate optimization enabled Safe Catch seafood to recover $1 million from stockouts, while navigating international supply chains and unpredictable fishing seasons.
Situation
Sea of complexity
Commodity supply chains are notoriously complex, but few rival the wild-caught seafood industry. Silicon Valley-based Safe Catch Seafood sought a sustainable, technology-driven supply chain solution to keep out-of-stocks (OOS) at bay for their high-demand, fast-growing product lines.
As Safe Catch’s COO for over a decade, Kevin McCay shared some of the challenges that can make planning difficult. Take salmon, for instance. Fishing is restricted to a small time window, and some species like Pink Salmon operate on alternating even-odd year cycles – meaning Safe Catch must forecast demand and secure inventory two years in advance.
Add continuous geopolitical disruptions and fishing challenges specific to each species, and the complexity becomes clear.
“We source various species from places like Russia and West Africa, which face unique challenges, so having proven sales and velocity data makes our supply chain planning more effective,” Kevin explains.
Solution
All hands on deck with data
For Kevin, daily data visibility with Crisp is crucial for growth, let alone operational survival, in competitive retail. Even when tariffs shift overnight or seasons deliver surprises, granular sales and inventory data help his team make revenue-boosting adjustments quickly and accurately.
Safe Catch leverages four major retail channels through Crisp: UNFI, KeHE, Whole Foods, and Wegmans. The platform serves as a single source of truth for teams across operations, logistics, inventory management, sales, and marketing – creating unified visibility where data was previously unavailable or disconnected.
Immediate gains were realized as Crisp saved the team hours previously spent hopping between portals and manually aggregating insights. From there, features like DC Inventory Heatmaps and Fill-Rate Tracking provide a clear roadmap for McCay and his team to proactively address out-of-stocks and protect every sale.
When Kevin’s team meets with retail partners, they arrive prepared with clean, credible data that mirrors the buyer’s own records, making conversations about growth opportunities clear and compelling.
Abundant results:
- $1M savings in resolved out-of-stocks
- 37% distribution growth
- 33% sales growth:
#1 SKU Elite Wild Tuna
Favorite insight:
Harmonized Distributor Reports
Monitor business health across retailers and ciew distributor-to-store fill-rates to proactively address supply chain challenges.
Reviewing Crisp is a consistent process for our team, and we often uncover actionable opportunities through the data.
Kevin McCay
COO, Safe Catch
Always be Data Ready with Crisp
Crisp allows food brands and retailers to stay ahead of rapidly evolving consumer behavior, identify potential supply chain disruptions, track inventory and product performance. It’s easy and quick to get started so you can be Data Ready.