Smartway Begins Its Conquest of the American Market and Deploys Its Anti-Waste Technology With Vallarta Supermarkets

SANTA CLARITA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Smartway, a pioneer in the fight against food waste through artificial intelligence, is reaching a crucial milestone in its development with its first partnership in North America: Vallarta Supermarkets, a leading player in California, has finalized the deployment of Smartway's intelligent detection technology.

"To have a real global impact on food waste, it is unthinkable not to address the United States. This country concentrates both colossal surpluses and pockets of food insecurity: the stakes there are immense. By establishing an initial partnership with Vallarta, a player as committed as it is emblematic in California, we are taking a key step in our international development, demonstrating that transformation is possible, even on a large scale."

Christophe and Paul-Adrien Menez, co-founders of Smartway

An American context marked by urgency and paradox

The United States presents a glaring paradox: in 2023, the country wasted 91 million tons of food, while 18 million households were food insecure (source: USDA - United States Department of Agriculture). While households remain the primary culprits (48%), the retail sector accounts for 20% of waste, often due to poor management of dates, aesthetic criteria, and unsuitable tools. On the shelves, losses even exceed the profits generated.

In response, authorities are aiming to reduce waste by 50% by 2030, and several states have already passed legislation. Yet, only 13% of retailers are equipped with AI-based tools, despite strong investment intentions. It is in this context that Smartway provides an effective response, combining technology, efficiency, and impact.

Lightning-fast deployment: 39 stores in 6 months, exceptional adoption

Vallarta Supermarkets is a family-owned chain with deep roots in California. It primarily serves the Mexican and Latino communities, with a product offering that emphasizes freshness, tradition, and affordability.

The partnership with Smartway delivered results that exceeded expectations: 39 stores deployed in just 6 months, with the final 34 stores rolled out in only 5 weeks across Center Store Grocery, Deli, Frozen, and Dairy departments. The project followed a structured approach: 3-4 months for pilot phase with 5 stores and validation, 1 month for preparation and planning alignment, followed by an intensive 5-week deployment across the remaining stores.

At Vallarta, the integration of the Smartway solution allows in-store teams to automatically detect products approaching their expiration date using on-board artificial intelligence. Smartway's solution enables rapid and targeted identification of the products to be processed, which lead to improvement for the team compared to the previous setup. But what sets this deployment apart is Smartway's field-first methodology: the US team worked directly in stores, training employees, demonstrating the personal benefits of the tool, and ensuring seamless integration into daily workflows.

"We had a previous solution for this, with more complexity, many things had to be taken care of manually. With Smartway, everything is running smoothly from the very first time we went to the first store," notes Rodrigo Jimenez, Director Shelf Edge at Vallarta Supermarkets.

By optimizing this key step, teams save time, losses are reduced, and margins are preserved, all without disrupting existing processes or complicating daily operations. Headquarters now have real-time visibility into what's happening daily in stores—solving the pervasive problem of store teams "checking boxes" without genuine engagement.

The results demonstrate exceptional adoption and satisfaction: survey responses from store teams show 4.85/5 for adoption, 4.7/5 for communication quality, and 4.6/5 for installation and setup—metrics that prove genuine user engagement. User feedback consistently highlights the solution's ease of use: "Quick and easy to understand the program. Very user friendly," and "The program is very easy to manage and to implement to our daily routines."

"Congratulations on an outstanding implementation! Your hard work and dedication are truly commendable, and the exceptional results speak for themselves."

Steve Netherton, CIO, Vallarta Supermarkets

Smartway, a pioneering and committed company

Since 2012, Smartway has been helping retailers maximize profitability by reducing food waste. Founded by Christophe Menez and Paul-Adrien Menez, the company pioneered Zero Waste departments in France, where products approaching their expiration date are consolidated and sold at discounted prices— turning potential losses into revenue.

Smartway has since developed advanced technology for in-store waste management, built around an all-in-one application that enables rapid, automated detection of products to be marked down, while ensuring no expired products remain on shelves. Using proprietary AI, Smartway automatically calculates the optimal discount rate for each product, maximizing recovery value.

Since its creation, it has saved more than 420 million products and delivered $175 million additional profit to retailers.

About Smartway

A grocery store often throws away as much as it earns and this waste erodes margins. Smartway helps retailers turn this loss center into a profit lever.

Since 2012, Smartway has been supporting large-scale food retailers with an AI- powered Food Waste Management System that optimizes the end-of-life journey of fresh products. By digitalizing date checks and guiding markdown decisions, Smartway helps stores reduce losses, recover value on at‑risk products, and protect profitability.

With its solutions deployed in 12 countries, Smartway has already saved hundreds of millions of products from waste, preserved retailersʼ margins, and restored hundreds of millions of euros in purchasing power to shoppers – proving that tackling food waste is first and foremost a business performance opportunity for the grocery sector.

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