Apicius: cooking up success with Adobe Commerce and Akeneo

Once upon a time, Apicius…

Apicius’s digital story began in 2018. Richard Fonzes, the company’s co-CEO, had extensive experience equipping the hospitality sector (cafés, hotels and restaurants). In this highly standardized B2B world, Richard and his team wanted to shake things up by introducing a new model built on modern ordering technologies and tools, e-commerce in particular. And so Apicius was born.

The digital side, however, was less straightforward. As Richard explains, “Back then (in 2018), we thought the internet was simple and easy.” The team decided to launch its first online store, built on Magento by a local agency. Apicius was determined, but building the e-commerce tool was a slog that dragged on. Then came COVID and the lockdown, which made the project even harder.

From 2020, the site did start taking its first orders, but the results were still not satisfactory. The Apicius team was small and focused on its core business expertise, and it lacked the support, advice and strategic direction it needed on a subject it still knew little about: e-commerce.

…who met Adobe and Synolia

With support from the software vendor Adobe, Apicius approached Synolia to audit its platform, made up of an Akeneo PIM and a B2B online store on Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento 2).

Step by step, the Apicius and Synolia teams built a close collaboration and turned the project around: the effort paid off! Backed by an experienced consulting team and project manager at Synolia, Apicius put in place practical, pragmatic solutions to run the business day to day (new module rollouts, platform stabilization and optimization).

Apicius gradually became more autonomous and organized itself around the key topics of its business. The team strengthened its technical capabilities as well as its digital communication and marketing skills, and a community manager came on board to handle social media.

“Beyond the technical work, the idea is to support the client as it ramps up the day-to-day management of its digital business. Helping it structure its team, make the most of its talent, identify roadblocks… That’s a very interesting part of our work at Synolia: making our clients independent in running their solution, so that we can focus on high-value work. We’re not here to sell days; we’re here to support our clients over the long term.” Yoran, Apicius project manager at Synolia

Despite the COVID context, Apicius has grown strongly over the past twelve months. Building on an optimized digital platform, the company can put a different business model into practice. As a member of a cooperative, GAFIC, which gives it a large catalog and strong product availability, Apicius can now compete with the biggest hospitality equipment suppliers. The company doubled its revenue to €4.2 million in 2021 and has taken a leading position within the cooperative.

They set ambitious goals…

APICIUS’s growth targets for the next two years are even more ambitious: the company calmly states that it aims to double its revenue again within the next 18 months. In addition, digital should account for 50% of Apicius’s revenue by 2023.

Not bad for a business that only really took off last year!

APICIUS also has one strong distinguishing trait: the company is extremely responsive to changes and developments in its market. In 2020, Apicius focused on supplying new restaurant concepts (Brut Butcher, Côté Sushi, Jour, etc.) that put takeout at the heart of their growth.

“In 2022, we’re focusing part of our efforts on developing the dark kitchen segment: equipping brands that have no ‘physical’ storefront and build their model around delivery sales. There’s strong traction in this market, and we’re much more responsive than others in offering the best solutions,” says Richard Fonzes.

… and a very successful collaboration

Today, Apicius is one step ahead in the digitalization of its sector, with a platform that is robust and efficient, but also pragmatic and cost-controlled to run.
“Working with Synolia is simple and relatively cost-effective, because we focus our efforts on high-value topics. Consulting is essential: while our competitors spend hundreds of thousands of euros on heavy platforms that are extremely complex to run, we focus our efforts on what our customers really need,” says Richard Fonzes.

Apicius continues its journey, gradually bringing its ambitions to life at the heart of its industry. In the end, with the right recipe, e-commerce may well be simple and easy after all!