Contact
en

API Distribution

Who is API?

Village grocery stores used to be essential places for people to pass through, meet new people and learn new habits. Along with the church and the bakery, they were the very soul of a village. API is a new type of convenience store, connected and always open, with a daily presence, fulfilling the original and essential function of proximity and social link that the countryside deserves to regain.

API’s ambition is to revitalize rural areas with self-service convenience stores. The aim is to offer a complete, modern range of local products: 700 to 800 items per store, available at prices similar to those in supermarkets, plus a range of “super local” products. All accessible 24/7. API’s business model is underpinned by three key elements: a supply chain partnership with Carrefour, which brings its logistical muscle and a vast range of everyday products to the table; self-contained, lightweight, eco-designed facilities that can be rapidly deployed; and a mini-market manager for clusters of 5 stores, to keep costs down.

The API concept came to fruition on November 15, 2022, with the opening of the first supérette in Claix, Charente. In 2023, the opening schedule will focus on the Nouvelle-Acquitaine region, with a target of 40 stores in operation. This will be followed by 160 stores by the end of 2024, and 600 by the end of 2026, throughout France.

API ma supérette plans to achieve sales of €200,000 per store in the long term

To find out more

Rural API supermarkets opt for SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud (RISE) offering

A start-up full of potential and ambition, API felt the need to rely on SAP ERP to structure its processes and ensure the reliability of its inventory data. It opted for the SAP S/4HANA offering deployed in public cloud mode (RISE with SAP) by Applium’s teams.

Finding an ERP capable of supporting its growth…

” Our growth rate is strong and should accelerate further from January 2024, with a rate of 10 new openings per month,” explains API CTO Fabien Espinasse. We need a solid ERP to support this growth and centralize our accounting, inventory management and management control. From the outset, we wanted to have a complete ERP system, capable of supporting us when we have to manage 600 stores spread across France”.

Today’s start-up is aiming to become a big name in rural distribution, and therefore needed an ERP capable of supporting it, as well as giving it a certain credibility with its partners and investors.

… And a partner capable of supporting the project
After a false start, API turned to the experts at Applium, with whom the company’s CTO had already collaborated;
Applium is a reputable French company, capable of supporting us throughout France, and offering serious, certified consultants who master the implementation best practices recommended by SAP,” sums up Fabien Espinasse. This was a key factor in enabling us to meet our deadlines and budget, based on a fit-to-standard approach that will enable us to limit the risk of accumulating technical debt in the future. Applium’s support will also give us greater leverage in our dealings with SAP.
The project is intended to be extremely short: 3 months between May and July to carry out all tasks ranging from scoping to implementation, including user training, followed by a month to ensure a first version upgrade (with the next release of the RISE offering arriving in August), accompanied by the usual non-regression tests. A marathon of months that will result in the solution going live at the beginning of September. Applium will then offer its TMA services, to cover current API needs, but also to support the biennial version upgrades of the RISE offer in public cloud mode.
The ERP scope remains classic (purchasing, sales, accounting, inventory, management control). Although the number of users is limited to API’s head office, the ERP will also be partly open to store managers. ” 

But also…

Certain tedious tasks carried out by store managers will be simplified, with automated data feedback to head office, enabling the production of reliable, real-time KPIs on inventories, via reporting integrated into SAP S/4HANA. These analyses can then be extended via the SAP Analytics Cloud solution.

Customer testimonials

slide 3 to 4 of 2
00:00
Play Testimonial S/4HANA Cloud Public APIS/4HANA Cloud Public API
short version
00:00
Play Testimonial S/4HANA Cloud Public API
long version

” We naturally turned to a public cloud offering, RISE with SAP S/4HANA. It gives us all the power and functionality of an SAP ERP, albeit with some limitations in terms of our ability to create and deploy specific applications. I see this as a good thing for a company like API, which wants to structure itself around standard processes. If SAP BTP can meet specific needs, we try to stick to the principles of fit-to-standard, because anything specific will inevitably result in significant implementation and maintenance costs. “

“Up until now, inventories had been carried out using Excel files, which were then uploaded and consolidated at head office. In this respect, the arrival of the SAP S/4HANA ERP system will be a real revolution: managers will be equipped with tablets that will enable them to scan QR codes on receipts and carry out inventories. All with a simple, ergonomic tool, concentrated around two Fiori tiles.

Fabien Espinasse
CTO of API ma supérette