Brau Union: More Brand Presence in Retail with the Sales App S.E.PP

All clear on the shelf

SRB app strengthens the presence of Brau Union brands in food retail and optimises sales and marketing

Whether Gösser, Zipfer, Puntigamer, Schwechater, or Wieselburger – Brau Union Österreich is present with strong beer brands across the country. The local market leader relies on a long brewing tradition, local identity, and high quality. To consistently uphold this standard at the point of sale, the company sought a solution that systematically strengthens brand presence in retail, reduces out-of-stock situations, and simultaneously supports the sales team digitally. Together with the SRB Consulting Team, the Sales Execution App, known as S.E.PP, was developed to realise Brau Union's vision of modern and efficient market engagement. An AI update in 2025 made the now-proven app future-ready.

A cold beer among friends, the well-deserved pint after work, or the first sip with a good meal – such moments make the heart of a true beer lover race. However, what often seems self-evident requires a perfectly orchestrated interplay of brewing art, modern production, quality management, logistics, and sales. Especially for the market leader in Austria, Brau Union.

Many steps are necessary before individual bottles, multipacks, or crates reach the sales floor of local food retail. Accordingly, many gears must turn to ensure that all consumers receive their favourite beer exactly when they want it. Empty shelves, on the other hand, would be detrimental. Such scenarios must be avoided, as Nils Honetschläger, D&T Manager Commerce of Brau Union Österreich, notes: “This not only harms our sales and that of our customers but also, in turn, our image.”

Sales optimisation as a goal. Accordingly, it has been his wish and endeavour to continuously optimise sales and marketing channels while measurably increasing brand presence and visibility in retail. Reliable data instead of gut feeling is his approach here. Possible out-of-stock situations should be recognised more quickly, causes made more transparent, and sales and marketing supplied with current data from the respective market. At the same time, the sales team should receive a mobile solution that makes all important information intuitively available everywhere and user-friendly.

It was particularly important to Nils Honetschläger that the app could also be used offline to counter potential mobile dead zones in basements, warehouses, or remote areas. This means: data should be preloaded onto the mobile device, processed locally in the market, and – once the connection is restored – synchronised in the background with the SAP CRM. To avoid annoyances and efforts, an intelligent conflict and error handling was developed.

“We are not only concerned with efficiency but also with lived responsibility and our quality standards towards trading partners and consumers,” Nils Honetschläger states.

Mobile solution now AI-supported. Since there was no mobile application in the SAP standard that effectively covered the sales team's requirements, Brau Union looked around and found SRB Consulting Team. The Vienna-based SAP specialist with a long and reliable partnership tailored an extension based on the existing SAP CRM backend for Brau Union.

The concrete result was an iOS app that combines customer lists, visit planning, key topics, KPI collection, PoS materials, product and promotional information, as well as reports on on-site visits in one interface. The focus was on simple operation with the logic known from modern web shops.

What began in 2013 with initial test versions of the lovingly named Sales Execution App S.E.PP has continuously evolved over the years. Initially, major releases were rolled out approximately every six months, later on an annual basis. Most recently, Brau Union evaluated several AI solution providers with a clear goal: the next innovation step into the future through photo-based recognition of facings, i.e., the visibility of Brau Union items on the shelf, to automatically and AI-supported capture the share of space, net numeric distribution at brand and item level, and other KPIs. The advantage: manual counting of these facings is eliminated, and the sales team gains time for effective customer care. Additionally, Brau Union receives an even better data basis for assortment and placement decisions.

Implementation and partnership on equal footing. The SRB Consulting Team managed the project end-to-end – from consulting and process design to app development and integration into SAP CRM, to rollout support and ongoing development. Challenges such as large offline data volumes, performance optimisation on mobile devices, changing iOS versions, and a special support setup without personal tracking were tackled in close collaboration with Brau Union.

Notably, many core individuals remained on the project over the years and through role changes, which ensured stability and mutual trust. “We consciously chose a local technology partner that can provide both app development and CRM customisation from a single source and strengthens value creation in the country with regional expertise. And we have not regretted it,” Nils Honetschläger summarises.

More visibility, better data, lived values. The success speaks for itself. User acceptance of S.E.PP in the sales team is high – a result attributed to the integration of early user feedback, design workshops, and a consistent focus on usability. Sales visits are now better prepared and data-driven, the work and recording of all activities on-site are even more efficient today thanks to AI support, and service quality is higher. For the headquarters, S.E.PP provides a uniform, up-to-date data basis to identify brand performance, weaknesses, and potentials in the markets and derive concrete measures.

Accordingly, Nils Honetschläger looks back positively on the project. And he feels perfectly positioned for the future, as he concludes: “S.E.PP has become not only our daily companion for the sales team but a true partner that has significantly contributed to securing our success as market leader both on the shelves and on paper. And I am sure that we will continue to enjoy this app in the future.”

About Brau Union Österreich

Brau Union Österreich offers over 100 different beer and beverage specialties with 15 brands and unites 12 brewing locations across Austria. The high-quality range includes widely distributed top brands such as Gösser, Schwechater, and the wheat beer brand Edelweiss, as well as brands with strong regional significance like Zipfer, Puntigamer, Wieselburger, Kaiser, Schladminger, Reininghaus, Villacher, and Fohrenburger, up to international premium brands like Heineken and Desperados, and the cider brands Strongbow and Stibitzer. 2,600 employees across Austria ensure that around 49,000 customers from retail and gastronomy, as well as millions of beer lovers throughout the country, are well catered for. The company has repeatedly won national and international awards for its innovations. In 2016, Brau Union Österreich was also awarded the

ÜBER die SRB Consulting Team GmbH SRB Consulting Team ist eines der führenden österreichischen Beratungsunternehmen zur Digitalisierung von komplexen Prozessen im SAP-Bereich. 1997 in Wien gegründet, begleitet das heute über 60-köpfige SRB-Expert:innen Team Unternehmen unterschiedlichster Branchen auf dem Weg ihrer digitalen Transformation und konzipiert und optimiert dabei deren interne Prozesse mit umfassenden IT-Services aller Art. Mehr zu SRB Consulting Team unter www.srb.at. Herausforderungen

• Sicherstellung einer prominenten Markenpräsenz am PoS und Vermeidung von Out-of-Stock-Situationen
• Generierung verlässlicher, aktueller Marktdaten zur Optimierung von Vertrieb und Marketing
• Notwendigkeit einer mobilen, auch offline nutzbaren Lösung für den Außendienst
• Bedarf nach individueller, integrierter Lösung auf Basis des bestehenden SAP CRM Lösung Individuell entwickelte Sales Execution App (S.E.PP) basierend auf iOS Ergebnisse
• S.E.PP als zentrale iOS-Applikation für Außendienst entwickelt und erfolgreich implementiert
• Hohe Nutzerakzeptanz dank einfacher Bedienung
• Besser vorbereitete, datengetriebene Außendienstbesuche
• Effizientere Erfassung aller Tätigkeiten vor Ort
• Einheitliche, aktuelle Datenbasis zur Steuerung der Markenperformance