Arreiou
4×Store Expansion Enabled
Challenge
Arreiou, a fast-growing discount retailer in Angola, was trapped by their own success. With 50 stores and aggressive expansion plans to reach 200+ locations, their manual ordering process had become the bottleneck blocking growth.
Pain Points
- Store managers received printed Excel sheets, hand-wrote quantities, then scanned and sent to HQ
- HQ staff manually typed each order into Excel—errors cascading through the chain
- Bullwhip effect: Delays and errors led to stockouts, followed by panic overstock
- Scalability cliff: Process required linear headcount growth with store expansion
- 4-8 hours per week per store spent on ordering alone
The Strategic Constraint: Growing to 200 stores would require 3-4× more HQ staff just to process orders—an unsustainable cost structure that would destroy unit economics.
Client Profile
- Industry
- Discount grocery retail (Angola)
- Scale
- 50 stores → 200+ stores in 3 years
- Sponsor
- João Vicente, CEO
Solution
Allyato designed and deployed an end-to-end intelligent ordering system built on Microsoft Power Platform, transforming manual chaos into automated efficiency.
Mobile Ordering App (Power Apps)
Store managers order directly from their phones with intuitive SKU lookup and quantity input
Desktop Workflow (MS Teams)
Sales managers review and approve orders in a centralized dashboard
Backend Automation (Power Automate + SharePoint)
Automated routing, notifications, approval flows, and SAP-ready export files
SAP Integration
Created ready-to-import format with one-click import option
Timeline
June decision → September pilot → Full rollout in 4 weeks
Investment
€10,000 fixed-price project
Results
Strategic Impact
- Scaled from 50 to 200+ stores in 3 years without operational collapse
- Eliminated the scalability bottleneck that was blocking expansion
- Enabled new store onboarding in days instead of weeks
Operational Metrics
- ~8-9 FTEs of manual work eliminated (15,600+ hours/year saved)
- Manual entry errors eliminated through digital input validation
- Order processing time reduced 70%+ (real-time vs. days of delays)
- Stockout/overstock cycles broken through faster, more accurate ordering
Financial Impact
- €10k investment, 2-3 month payback from labor savings alone
- Unlocked multi-million € expansion without proportional HQ growth
- Margin protection: Reduced waste from overstock; captured sales from reduced stockouts
- System still running 4+ years later
Testimonial
"Since implementing the ordering apps and workflows, our ordering process became significantly more efficient and reliable. Stores gained autonomy, errors from manual processes disappeared, and automated notifications provided real-time transparency—enabling a more agile operation."
João Vicente
CEO, Arreiou (Refriango Group)