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Our Mission
Reduce food waste through automation
Shelf Engine is transforming how grocery stores buy highly perishables.
We help our customers significantly increase profits and drastically reduce food waste in thousands of retail locations across the country.
Our Principles
We believe
in a triple win—
In doing work that is unreservedly good for customers, consumers, and the environment. Shelf Engine’s impact to date is thanks to our inventive, transparent, and growing team who is committed to these shared principles.
01
Make the
first move.
We're all leaders. Don't wait for someone else to do it. Be bold and take the initiative to get things started.
02
Make better decisions.
Repeated good decisions have a virtuous compounding effect. Treat decision-making with care.
03
Be furiously curious.
Investigate how and why things work the way they do.
04
Commit and deliver.
Deliver the best results, fast.
05
Have empathy.
Seek to understand your teammates and our customers. Reflect what you see, support one another, collaborate — and camaraderie will ensue.
06
Invent solutions.
The answer won’t always be obvious. The question isn’t can it work: it’s how.
07
Be authentic.
Bring your truest self to your work and into all your interactions. Even when things are tough, be respectful.
Served fresh.
Read the latest foodservice trends and grocery innovations on our
Off The Shelf blog.
Shop Around Off The Shelf blog.
Our Impact
Nothing makes us prouder than the results we’ve achieved for our customers and our planet — and we’re just getting started.
4.5
million pounds of
food waste prevented
in 2021
food waste prevented
in 2021
15%
average gross
margin expansion
margin expansion
5
hours of labor
saved per category
per store, per day
saved per category
per store, per day
Our Story
There’s got to be a better way… Stefan discovered the problem of food waste first hand while running Molly’s, a grab & go food company he started in 2009. By 2014 Stefan had grown the company to over 400 regional retail locations, but ordering accurately proved to be challenging. Molly’s food waste was at 28% and was eating into their bottom line.
Hungry for a better solution, Stefan talked to his friend (and Co-Founder) Bede Jordan about the problem. At the time, Bede was working at Microsoft as the HoloLens Principle Software Engineering Lead. With Stefan’s actuarial science background and Bede’s engineering brilliance, they were able to build a model and app to considerably improve perishable food forecasting. The result? Cutting Molly’s food waste in half, down to 13%.
In 2016, Stefan and Bede quit their day jobs to launch Shelf Engine with the mission of transforming the food supply chain by helping grocery stores reduce waste and increase sales through intelligent forecasting. Today Shelf Engine is managing orders for top grocers in thousands of stores nationwide, drastically increasing grocer profits and sales by eliminating shrink and out-of-stocks. Come join us on our mission to reduce food waste through automation.
"There's got to be a better way."
Stefan Kalb, Co-Founder
Shelf Life
October 2016
—
Shelf Engine is incorporated and moves into first office…in a basement
February 2017
—
Hire first employee
March 2017
—
First customer, Metier Cafe
October 2018
—
First national client, Whole Foods
November 2020
—
Team reaches 100 employees
September 2021
—
Team tops 200 employees
Join us.
Come be a part of this story. Shelf Engine is growing fast and looking for people who are passionate about helping us reduce food waste through automation.