Shared Services

Shared Services combines the competence centres in six areas. It is responsible both for operational activities and the strategic orientation of each area:

• Logistics
• IT
• Transport
• Environment, energy and engineering
• Planning/expansion
• Quality assurance

In 2016, logistics activities focused on increasing efficiency by reducing costs along the entire supply chain. Greater transparency of the goods flows and information flows will increase the efficiency for all participants in the supply chain. Among other things, this will mean an optimal integration of stationary retailing with online retailing.

Automation at the Migros Distribution Centre in Suhr (food) and the Migros Distribution Centre in Neuendorf (non- and near-food products, textiles and frozen produce) was stepped up again. The extension to the Neuendorf deep-freeze warehouse went into operation in 2016. At the Migros Distribution Centre in Suhr, the high-bay warehouse was expanded and the automation measures for small quantities completed.

Transport optimisation: economic, environmental

The changing customer requirements – longer opening hours, cross-channel delivery and online shopping – call for new transport solutions. With clever volume bundling and an intelligent combination of all modes of transport (road, rail and intermodal), Migros again managed to work out highly efficient and environmentally friendly transport methods in 2016. In international transport, this was achieved in particular by expansion of the southern port connection, through which more than 30% of goods from the Far East now pass.

Migros again made more use of rail freight in 2016. In the area of international transport, some heavy shipments were switched from road to rail. For example, processed tomato products from southern Italy are now transported by rail. The test shipments by rail from China to Europe were also continued in the reporting year in order to gain further insights.

Intermodal transport also benefited from further switches to rail. With the pilot project "Fruit/vegetable imports", which was launched at the end of 2016, further efforts to reduce CO2 will be continued this year. A greater use of rail reduces CO2 emissions by about 2-3t per day.

IT Services: digitalisation & consolidation

The main focus in Migros IT Services was on digitalisation and consolidation. The most important projects were:

• The roll-out of a standardised national system for commercial real estate management based on SAP was completed in 2016.
• As part of the centralisation, the first 2'400 systems from the local data centres were integrated into the national data centre infrastructure. This also included the systems with the highest demands in terms of availability.
• The roll-out of M-Workplace as a further standardisation and optimisation of processes was in full swing in 2016. Numerous companies were successfully integrated into the new workplace environment. At the end of 2016, M-Workplace had more than 7'000 users.
• For the fresh food range, the existing system used for forecasting and requirement planning was replaced with the new SAP system "Forecast & Replenishment". Improved algorithms and individual demand factors allow 700 supermarket branches to work with a more precise order proposal.

Environmental protection & energy efficiency: optimised services

In 2016, the Logistics & IT Department, in partnership with the other strategic business units (SBU), again committed itself to the sustainable organisation of its services. This enabled further implementation of the basic requirements for corporate environmental protection within the Migros Group.

The development of individual climate and energy strategies, the submission of energy and CO2 target agreements to the state and cantons, and the implementation of specific energy measures were also supported and promoted in the reporting year. In the logistics companies, further measures were taken to reduce fossil fuels (e.g. through waste heat utilisation) and electricity consumption (e.g. through optimised refrigeration).

Since 1 November 2016, disposable plastic bags at the checkouts of Migros supermarkets have cost five cents and are made completely from recycled plastic. In the first two months alone, 80% less plastic bags were used than before. The Logistics & IT Department played an important role in the change as the overall coordinator. The plastic used in the new recyclable carrier bags comes from the waste generated by the Neuendorf distribution centre.