Internet for Retail How Lvivkholod Ensures the Operation of Over 200 Supermarkets

Warehouse management, 24/7 coordination of product supply, customer database management and the uninterrupted functioning of hundreds of supermarkets and thousands of employees — these are just some of the daily tasks handled by the Lvivkholod team. Here’s how the company manages to handle it all and what role the fault-tolerant internet and telecom services play herein.

The Lvivkholod trading and manufacturing company is one of the retail leaders in Western Ukraine. By the number of retail outlets, the company ranks fifth in the nationwide chain rankings. It owns the Rukavychka supermarket chain with 212 stores, as well as the manufacturing facilities, a lab and even its own logistics center. Over 3,500 employees keep all of this up and running.

Key IT infrastructure tasks and challenges in retail

Staying ahead in the highly competitive grocery retail market takes a huge effort. It’s about efficient management processes, cost optimization, personalized customer communication, high-quality logistics and constant monitoring and data analysis. All these components create value for the customer.

Today, such tasks are managed with a centralized ERP system, specialized software solutions, and a suite of SaaS products. Any “hiccup” in these services can lead to significant loss: from empty or overstocked shelves to poor management decisions. That’s why such an architecture is impossible without reliable internet and fault-tolerant telecom services.

‘The Lvivkholod’s IT infrastructure operates 24/7 thanks to uninterrupted internet at all locations, VoIP, corporate mobile services and cloud that is a part of our hybrid corporate system. Without these services, the efficient communication with customers, suppliers and employees would be impossible,’ says Yurii Verbyanyi, Head of IT Department at Lvivkholod.

A unified network for large-scale retail

In recent years, the Lvivkholod team has come a long way of turning its IT architecture from centralized to hybrid. This transformation is not just about improved cybersecurity and service continuity.

GigaTrans specialists built an internal IT communications infrastructure for the client using data transmission channels. They connected the company’s headquarters with over 120 points into a local network. As a result, the company’s employees were granted a secure access to key corporate tools, like email and the ERP system, without needing to go online. This also enhances data security by preventing third-party access to confidential information.

The GigaTrans team undertook the connection management for all locations and consolidated all telecom documentation into a single package. This approach allowed for the significant reduction of the company’s accounting workload. Lvivkholod also optimized IT costs thanks to GigaTrans’s high-quality unified tech support, which ensures rapid settlement of any issues with internet channel failures across regions.

Implementation results

‘When choosing a telecom provider, we prioritized a company that could definitely meet requirements such as network coverage, bandwidth, data security and confidentiality, as well as the modern tech stack and flexibility. It was also crucial for us that the provider understood our business specifics and was accountable for the continuity of telecom services,’ says Yurii. ‘GigaTrans met all of those criteria, so we opted for working with their team’.

Thanks to GigaTrans’s telecom services, Lvivkholod has ensured uninterrupted internet across all locations, eliminated infrastructure downtime and can easily scale its network. This allows the company’s IT team to focus not on maintenance, but on strategic development.