Efficient inventory management is crucial to prevent out-of-stocks and avoid overstocking at the same time.

In this case study, you will discover how XXL Nutrition – a leading sports nutrition brand – reduced their inventory levels by 30%, reduced out-of-stocks by 25% and increased their turnover at the same time, using Optiply’s data-driven purchasing software.

In this article, Rene van der Zel, founder and owner, Brent van Hoof, CFO, and Roel Linders, purchaser, talk about how purchasing and inventory management have played an important role in the spectacular growth of XXL Nutrition.

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XXL Nutrition is a brand for every athlete

In 2004, founder and owner René van der Zel, as a fanatic body builder, saw an opportunity in the market for high-quality and affordable sports nutrition. “I come from bodybuilding and when I started XXL Nutrition, that was the target group I focused on. Now, we have emerged from our niche. We are a brand for every athlete.”

René literally started his company from his garage and did everything himself. “Now we are a team of hundreds of employees. However, we still arrange everything in-house. Product development, webshop maintenance, purchasing, warehousing and logistics. We have only outsourced production, but all products are from our own recipe.”

XXL Nutrition provides both strength and endurance athletes with nutrition, supplements and sports and lifestyle products. Starting as an online retailer, XXL Nutrition is now also conquering the shelves of Dutch and Belgian supermarkets.

Brent van Hoof, CFO, explains: “We have developed from a bodybuilding brand to a mainstream brand.” This new approach has had an effect and annual growth figures of 70% are no longer an exception. However, the growth in the first years was also accompanied by major challenges.

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The constant threat of overstock and stockouts

René explains that when he first started with XXL Nutrition, growth almost always came with new challenges. “For us, it was a huge challenge to determine when to purchase products. We used to work with minimum and maximum order quantities, as soon as the stock went below the minimum level, we started to purchase.

At first, this seemed like a smart method, but it turned out to be a very static way of inventory management. Changes in sales were not taken into account, which meant that we were always purchasing too late or too early.”

Ordering too late or too early caused an imbalance in their inventory. The threat of overstock and stockouts was constant. Brent adds: “We also didn't know how big we were as a business and what stock level that involved.” XXL Nutrition desperately needed a dynamic tool that could make better forecasts to maintain stock levels and maintain them.

Forecasts converted into real-time purchasing advice

The solution to XXL Nutrition's purchasing and inventory management challenges was integrating the Exact Online ERP system with the smart purchasing and inventory management software from Optiply. This made it possible for XXL Nutrition's purchasers to purchase more accurately and smarter.

Based on sales history, the Optiply app makes forecasts and converts them into real-time purchasing advice. Roel Linders, purchaser, explains how he uses Optiply: “I look at the sales figures and purchasing advice from Optiply every day. All data is in real-time so that I always purchase the right amount of products at the right time.”

Brent adds. “Our purchasing team has grown and many purchasing activities have changed as a result. In the old situation, our purchaser looked at almost everything and monitored everything. Now those two things have been split and we have an operational purchaser and an analyst.

They look at both the B2C and the B2B side - after all, we also have a wholesale function now.” It is these organizational matters that, in collaboration with smart systems, have enabled XXL Nutrition to bring balance to their inventory.

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Inventory balance is an ongoing process

XXL Nutrition can use Optiply's ABC analysis to categorise the products in its inventory and prioritise the items with a higher gross margin. Brent clarifies that keeping inventory in balance is an ongoing process. “We always try to keep inventory as low as possible without losing sales.”

XXL Nutrition almost solely sells products from its own brand. The group of suppliers they work with is small, as they almost always purchase directly from the manufacturer. “Working with a smaller group of suppliers makes us slightly more dependent, but on the other hand, you can easily connect with a supplier.”

An extra advantage is that almost all suppliers for the 'food products' of XXL Nutrition are based in the Netherlands or Belgium.

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XXL Nutrition focuses more on adding new products and product groups

Insight into their supply chain has enabled XXL Nutrition to focus more on adding new products and product groups. Purchaser Roel explains this: “Our stock has been organised much more efficiently since we started working with Optiply. For example, the stock level has dropped by 30%. This gives us more room to add new products.”

Brent adds: “We are responding to the trend that people live healthier and more conscious lives. This includes exercise, sports nutrition and healthy meals.” For example, XXL Nutrition now sells lactose-free products and healthy and fresh ready-made meals under the name Fitmeals.

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XXL Nutrition’s lost sales have gone down by 25%

Optiply's AI purchasing algorithm analyses different product categories, trends, seasons, stock-outs, delivery times, quantity discounts and supplier performance.

As a purchaser, Roel sees the direct benefits. “On the one hand, I have insight into how well we are actually doing with our stock and whether we can meet customer demand; on the other hand, I can determine exactly what I need to purchase. Our lost sales have gone down by 25% as a result.”

These results are not only good for revenue, but also for customer satisfaction. XXL Nutritions products are always in stock.

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Progress through collaboration with Optiply

XXL Nutrition is always on the move and, according to Brent, also looks for an open structure in collaboration with partners and suppliers. “In the collaboration with Optiply, we feel that we have made progress together, for example in the development of the dashboard, but also in a feature such as viewing expected delivery times per product.”

Another development that is being worked on is placing orders automatically. “We want to be able to convert Optiply's purchasing advice directly into purchase orders. For our bestsellers, we really dare to place orders 1 on 1, so that we do not miss a day or moment to place orders.”

The collaboration between Optiply and XXL Nutrition shows how smart inventory management directly contributes to success. By continuing to innovate together in the field of data and automation, we try to make the purchasing process of XXL Nutrition even more efficient and future-proof.