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Coto Stays True to Tradition While Meeting High Demands

In the heart of Argentina’s vibrant food industry, tradition and efficiency converge at COTO, a leading supermarket chain with 120 stores well known for its fresh meat and good quality.

Meat display in supermarket chain in Argentina
Rooted in Tradition, Improved in Service

How COTO Introduced Automation into Their Stores

In the heart of Argentina’s vibrant food industry, efficiency and tradition converge at COTO, a leading supermarket chain with 120 stores well known for its fresh meat and good quality. Recognizing the need to modernize while still honoring Argentina’s rich culture when it comes to meat, COTO turned to QUPAQ’s innovative solutions to enhance their butcher shop operations.

Forward-Thinking with Tradition in Mind

COTO is committed to deliver quality and to stay true to tradition, particularly in their meat departments, where the Argentine ‘asado’ [barbecue] holds a revered place. While automation is often associated with large-scale factories, COTO took a different approach:

“The president of COTO, Alfredo Coto, wanted to introduce automation for improving efficiency but also to increase production. And he wanted to keep this culture of selling fresh meat, and therefore he decided to install the machines directly into the stores” says Ariel Gaido, Chief Engineer at COTO.

COTO therefore enhanced the efficiency of their meat packaging without compromising on the authenticity of their products by cutting and packing the meat right in the supermarkets.

The butcher desk in COTO, Tigre.

A Boost in Efficiency Equaled a Boost in Service Levels

Ariel Gaido has been in charge of the implementation processes, and he notes a significant increase in COTO’s production capacity:

“The numbers are between 30 and 40 percent higher in production,” he says.

Ariel furthermore emphasizes how the transition to automation has improved COTO’s service level:

“In some of our biggest supermarkets, they sometimes sell up to 12.000 kilos of meat per day, so we have a lot of people waiting in line at the butcher’s desk to pick the meat they want. Therefore, by automating some of our processes, we have reduced the time of delivery which enhances the overall shopping experience for our customers.”

In a COTO store in Escobar on a typical Sunday, where people are waiting in line to get the meat for their Sunday asado.
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