A major food distributor continues to make inroads into digital commerce and transformation. And for US Foods, the payoff is more customers and digital sales tied to MOXē, its mobile app, and in gaining operating efficiencies through deploying more artificial intelligence (AI).
For its fiscal second quarter ended June 30, US Foods reported sales of $9.71 billion. That an increase of about 8% from sales of $9.01 billion in the prior year. Net income was $198 million. That compares with $182 million in Q2 2023.
In the most recent quarter, US Foods continues to execute on its plan for digital transformation, including AI, CEO Dave Flitman told analysts on a recent earnings call.
“We will continue to bring additional value to our customers through our digital platform,” he said.
How US Foods is using AI to drive digital transformation
One area where US Foods is making inroads digitally is by using AI to make driver delivery more efficient.
“(We are) utilizing artificial intelligence within the Where’s My Truck feature for MOXē customers to track their truck and delivery time. And over the past few months in our pilot markets, we’ve improved our delivery window accuracy by 40%,” Flitman told analysts. “We’ve seen a significant reduction in delivery-related customer service calls in those markets because of the better customer experience. This solution will be implemented in all markets by the end of the year.”
US Foods chief financial officer Dirk Locascio said the company will gain efficiency through better route prediction and delivery timing,
“This hasn’t anything to do with the driver of the customer — this is our ability to predict when the route will get to the customer,” Locascio said. “We have applied some significantly enhanced capabilities using AI to be able to predict that. Those increased capabilities are allowing us to be more accurate, telling the customer when we think the truck will get to their final stops.”
It’s all about MOXē for US Foods
At the heart of US Foods’ digital strategy is MOXē, the company’s ecommerce portal, which launched in late 2022. The company says 84% of US Foods’ customers use MOXē to place orders and manage their business.
Business management tools embedded in MOXē include:
- Cost management
- Labor and staff planning
- Retail performance
In the second quarter, MOXē will continue to gain more acceptance from customers, the company says.
“We’re very excited about MOXē – As we previously mentioned, we’re 100% rolled out across our independent restaurants and we’ve continued to ramp that up in our chain business. It’s now in 75% of our national chain business,” Flitman told analysts. “We expect to ramp that up between now and the end of the year. And to your point, yes, and as we said on investor day, on average, customers are buying 10% more.”
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