Software company’s 17-year partnership with Associated Wholesale Grocers culminates in first-ever industry recognition
As Associated Wholesale Grocers celebrated its 100th anniversary at this year’s annual convention, the Kansas City-based cooperative marked the milestone with something new: the introduction of its Vendor Partner of the Year awards. And the inaugural award for services and solutions went to BRdata, the Melville, New York-based company that has quietly become the back-office backbone for thousands of independent grocery stores across the country. AWG called BRdata a partner “whose performance has truly set the standard” and “whose commitment to partnership has earned them our highest honor.”
For BRdata President John Abbene, the recognition caps a relationship with AWG that stretches back nearly two decades – and a five-year technology overhaul that, by his own description, required “a lot of blood, sweat and tears” on both sides.
“It is an incredible honor to be the first company to receive this award, especially as AWG celebrates its 100-year anniversary,” Abbene said. “This award belongs to everyone on the BRdata team who worked on and supported this project.”
A partnership 17 years in the making
The BRdata-AWG relationship began in 2009, when BRdata competed for and won a contract to build a new on-line pricing system for AWG’s member retailers. The company deployed its solution to several hundred stores before AWG elected to explore a different direction, seeking a fully browser-based platform, which BRdata had not yet developed.
That detour proved pivotal; the cooperative ultimately brought BRdata back, first as a front-end provider and then, recognizing the strength of the company’s platform, as the full solution partner.
By 2020, the scope of the project had grown significantly. AWG needed to consolidate three separate legacy systems – including BRdata’s original 2009 platform, a system developed in-house and a third acquired through a wholesaler acquisition – into a single, unified pricing solution. It was, Abbene said, “an extremely complicated project.”
What followed was a five-year development effort involving daily conference calls, sometimes multiple times a day, between BRdata’s team and AWG’s retail business services and IT departments.
“This project has been a long road – challenging at times – but worth every step,” Abbene said, crediting AWG’s Stacey Bowen for her “unwavering support and belief in BRdata.”
The rollout was completed last year. Today, BRdata’s AWG RPA pricing solution powers nearly 3,300 independent AWG member grocery stores.
More than pricing – an end-to-end platform
While the AWG pricing project anchors the relationship, BRdata’s broader value proposition centers on consolidation, replacing five or six specialized vendors that many independent retailers rely on with a single, integrated back-office platform.
“There are many different solution providers out there,” Abbene said. “A retailer could go in and buy four different solutions. Maybe we cover all four. Instead of them paying four different companies – and each one has a high cost – we offer an affordable bundle.”
Founded in 1979, BRdata’s suite spans item management, pricing, receiving/OCR, inventory, analytics, loyalty rewards, customizable KPI dashboards, price optimization, promotion management, computer-generated ordering (CGO), fresh item management, vendor portal and more. The company integrates with all major grocery point-of-sale systems and supplier data feeds, serving as the vital connection between the front-end checkout and the back-office accounting operations.
Among its newest offerings is Ada, an AI-powered assistant launched 18 months ago that allows grocery decision-makers to query their store data conversationally. Abbene said the tool has been deployed to roughly 130 retailers representing about 2,700 stores, with approximately 10 new retailers onboarding every two weeks.
“With traditional reporting, you need to know where to go to get the information,” Abbene said. “Ada corrects that. You just ask a question and get an answer.”
The company also offers computer-generated ordering, a capability that has gained traction as labor costs rise and retailers struggle to fill positions. The system automatically generates purchase orders based on real-time inventory levels, meaning that if a dairy manager doesn’t show up to place an order, the system has already handled it.
Building across the wholesale landscape
BRdata’s reach extends beyond AWG. The company currently works with eight of the nine ROFDA (Retailer Owned Food Distributors and Associates) partners, including AFS, where it serves as a full reseller deploying BRdata HQ, store, loyalty, CGO, analytics and OCR solutions. In 2025, BRdata was selected to provide a ROFDA Cloud solution, aggregating sales data and item information across the 7,200 ROFDA member store landscape.
The relationships vary in structure. Some wholesalers resell BRdata directly and handle installation and support, while others recommend the platform to their member retailers. But the underlying value is the same: a unified system that gives independent grocers enterprise-level technology at an accessible price point.
A foundation for what’s next
With the AWG pricing rollout complete, Abbene sees the 3,300-store deployment as a launchpad. The unified base now allows BRdata to layer on additional capabilities – AI analytics, advanced reporting, DSD item support and more – without the complexity of integrating across disparate legacy systems.
“Now they have the base, and they can add things like Ada AI assistant, analytics, reporting, all the pieces,” Abbene said. “We can easily bolt those things on to the solution.”
In presenting the award, AWG described its Vendor Partner of the Year recipients as companies that “consistently demonstrate outstanding performance across every aspect of our partnership – from competitive pricing to reliability, innovation, world-class customer support and commitment to independent retailers.”
For BRdata, that commitment started with a chance to compete in 2009 and has grown into a technology partnership serving one of the largest cooperative grocery networks in the United States.
“They’re going to do this every year,” Abbene noted with a smile, “but we were the first.”