Grocery Wholesale & Distribution
Hours of Fixes, Now One Click
After a rough WMS go-live, Associated Grocers brought in E2. Label printing that took 10 to 15 minutes now takes seconds, and a wave crash that once cost hours is fixed with one button, on the same Infios WMS.
Once we contact E2 and they reply back, I know that issue is going to get solved. There hasn't been anything they haven't solved that we put in front of them.Stephen Acosta, VP of Information Services, Associated Grocers
A Rough Go-Live on a New WMS
Associated Grocers has supplied independent grocers since 1950 and today serves over 200 retail members across Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas. To scale and automate, AG replaced an aging legacy WMS that only one expert understood with Infios WMS, customized by its own developers.
Infios's on-site support wrapped after a couple of weeks, and the cracks showed fast. Even printing broke: labels and tags took 10 to 15 minutes and behaved inconsistently, leaving the floor idle. The pressure got real enough that AG's CEO asked it out loud: "Do we just need to pull the plug on this thing?" The answer was no. Power through.
AG went looking; they couldn't be the only ones who'd struggled through a WMS launch. A pattern emerged: many of the strongest Infios/Körber developers had moved on and now supported the platform from outside, several at E2. After the first call with Erik Easton, the depth of knowledge surprised them. Nothing they brought was foreign, and the estimates E2 gave were actually met.
Fixing What Kept the Floor Waiting
Labels and Tags, Rewritten
E2 engineer Segun rewrote most of the printing process and made it consistent. Jobs that took 10 to 15 minutes now print in seconds.
From Crisis Call to One Button
About two months in, a full meltdown idled the warehouse for four to five hours with payroll still running. The cause: a counter that wasn't incrementing correctly. On a live crisis call, Segun stepped through the code, got AG back online, then re-engineered wave releasing into visible, staged steps with built-in error handling. A recovery that once took hours and a roomful of people is now a single button press.
Labor Screens, Corrected
A separate labor-standards vendor, with its own Infios experience, couldn't get AG's labor analytics screens to display correctly. Segun stepped in and fixed them, restoring the point system that drives operator bonuses on cases loaded.
When AG threw a weekend Hail Mary, Segun got on during his day off: "that's all we needed to know about this relationship."
Stephen Acosta, VP of Information Services, Associated GrocersFrom Crisis Calls to a Button Press
The fixes added up to uptime. Crashes are far rarer, and when one happens the team recovers in minutes instead of hours.
| Measure | Before E2 | After E2 |
|---|---|---|
| Label and tag printing | 10 to 15 minutes, inconsistent | Seconds, every time |
| Wave-crash recovery | Hours, with many people on the call | One button press |
| Wave releasing | Crashed without warning | Staged, with error handling |
"Something that would take hours to correct, with multiple people on the call. Now it's literally a button press. It's light-years ahead of where it was."
Stephen Acosta, VP of Information Services, Associated Grocers- Seconds to print labels and tags, down from 10 to 15 minutes
- One button to recover from a wave crash, down from hours
- Wave releasing in visible stages with error handling
- The floor no longer stands idle during failures
- Labor-standards screens fixed after a dedicated labor vendor couldn't
- Estimates given and met
The Full Interview
Stephen Acosta, AG's VP of Information Services, walks through the go-live, the fixes, and where things stand now. About 23 minutes.
About Associated Grocers
- Founded
- 1950
- Headquarters
- Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Serves
- Over 200 independent retail members in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Arkansas
- Recognition
- The Shelby Report's 2025 Wholesaler of the Year
- WMS
- Infios WMS
- E2's work
- Printing rewrite, wave releasing rebuild, labor screens and ongoing support
Why It Worked
"Once we contact E2 and they reply, I know the issue is going to get solved. It has been a genuine partnership, and when it's time for our Infios upgrade, we don't want anyone else."
Stephen Acosta, VP of Information Services, Associated Grocers
"The depth of knowledge outside the Infios team was amazing to us." Estimates were given and met, and when AG needed help on a weekend, Segun got on during his day off.
Let's Talk About Your Warehouse
If your Infios WMS keeps the floor waiting, you do not have to live with it or rip it out. We will show you what it takes to fix it.