Culinar has taken a decisive step forward in demand planning — bringing forecast reviews, promotion planning, KPI follow-up, and market signals into one shared platform with Optilon Collaboration. The result: a more proactive planning process, stronger promotion visibility, and a scalable foundation for broader stakeholder involvement as the business grows.
About Culinar
Culinar, part of the Lyckeby Group, is a Swedish food company specialising in flavour and texture solutions for customers across the food industry, retail, and foodservice markets in Europe. The company’s broad portfolio includes the well-known consumer brand Kockens Kryddor — a product range with significant promotional complexity and seasonally driven demand patterns that make accurate, collaborative forecasting especially important.
“What makes the biggest difference is that we now have a structured way to capture promotion inputs, customer signals, and market changes in one place. It allows us to turn more information into actionable forecast decisions, while creating a process that can grow together with the business and support broader alignment over time.”
CHALLENGE
Turning demand signals into better decisions
With Optilon Collaboration, Culinar’s demand planners now work in a shared environment where forecast updates, KPI follow-up, and market intelligence come together. Using Forecast Review, Demand Summary, and Forecast Accuracy modules, the team can quickly adjust demand signals, monitor performance, and focus on the changes that matter most.
The impact has been tangible. Planners report spending significantly less time on administrative follow-up, with more capacity directed toward interpreting market signals and acting on them. Forecast accuracy tracking is now continuous rather than retrospective, giving the team earlier warning of deviations and reducing the risk of costly over- or under-supply.
SOLUTION
Structured promotion planning and market visibility
A key improvement has been the ability to manage promotion-driven demand in a more structured and auditable way. With reseller promotions from large retail customers, Culinar can now translate promotional uplift into clear demand assumptions and align buying decisions earlier in the process — reducing the lag between a promotion decision and its reflection in the supply plan.
At the same time, market changes can be documented directly in the platform and translated into long-term forecast adjustments, making it easier to respond proactively to demand shifts rather than reacting after the fact.
“The biggest difference is the overview. We can move faster in the planning process and spend more time understanding the market signals that actually improve the forecast. That helps us focus less on administration and more on making better decisions together.”
RESULT
A foundation for the S&OP journey ahead
Beyond improving day-to-day forecasting, Optilon Collaboration gives Culinar a platform to mature with. As Culinar’s S&OP process continues to develop, shared KPIs, meaningful performance graphs, and a single common demand view make it straightforward to involve stakeholders across buying, sales, and finance in a structured way.
The platform creates the conditions for faster, better-informed decisions at the cross-functional level — supporting a continuous improvement cycle rather than periodic alignment efforts. For a company with Culinar’s growth ambitions and portfolio complexity, that scalability is as important as the day-one efficiency gains.
Struggling with supply chain complexity? Let’s talk.
With a track record of over 1,000 successfully completed projects and 20+ years’ experience, Optilon is your trusted supply chain partner. Book a meeting with a supply chain expert to explore how Optilon Collaboration can help your business make better decisions.