Company engagement
freshPress
Make fresh, HPP-treated products available through an owned B2C and B2B channel.
- Role
- Exclusive distribution and digital commerce partner for Austria and Western Europe
- Status
- Technical platform complete; commercial and logistics rollout being built up
- Classification
- Company engagement
How the platform works
Context
freshPress sells fresh meals and products treated with high-pressure processing (HPP). HPP extends shelf life without heat treatment but requires an unbroken chilled supply chain. Somos-Co holds exclusive distribution rights for Austria and Western Europe and is responsible for the digital platform.
Business problem
Fresh products with limited shelf life place different demands on an online channel than dry goods: order cut-offs and delivery windows depend on each other, availability has to be tied to batches and remaining shelf life, and B2B customers need different pricing, ordering and delivery logic than consumers. Serving both channels from one platform without simplifying away the operational reality was the actual task.
Mandate and role
What Somos-Co owns
As the exclusive distribution and digital commerce partner for Austria and Western Europe, Vencel Somos is responsible for the entire technical web application, deployment, infrastructure and platform operations, and contributes to the design of the logistics and fulfilment processes.
What the partner or customer owns
The freshPress brand itself — Somos-Co does not own the brand and holds distribution rights only, for Austria and Western Europe.
Outside the role
Brand ownership of freshPress sits outside Somos-Co’s role, as does sole responsibility for logistics and fulfilment processes — Somos-Co only contributes to their design.
Intervention
- 1
Development of the entire technical web application
- 2
Implementation of the B2C commerce path
- 3
Implementation of the B2B commerce path with different ordering and pricing logic
- 4
Deployment on a K3s cluster
- 5
Infrastructure build-up and platform operations
- 6
Contribution to logistics and fulfilment processes
- 7
Preparation of the Austrian and Western European rollout
Technical scope
Application
- Full-stack web application
- B2C and B2B commerce in one codebase
- Catalogue, ordering and fulfilment logic
Platform
- Deployment on a K3s cluster
- Container infrastructure, routing and TLS
Operations
- Monitoring and backups
Operating model
The platform runs on a K3s environment operated by Somos-Co with a defined deployment process, monitoring and backups. Commercial responsibility for distribution in Austria and Western Europe sits with Somos-Co; product responsibility sits with freshPress.
Current status
The technical platform is complete. The commercial and logistics rollout is being built up.
Result and evidence
- B2C and B2B commerce are implemented in one platform and ready for operation.
- The application is deployed on an operated K3s environment with monitoring and backups.
- The fulfilment logic reflects the requirements of chilled fresh products.
Limitations of these statements
- No completed area-wide rollout is claimed — the commercial and logistics build-up is ongoing.
- No sales figures are published.
- No customer numbers are published.
- Somos-Co holds distribution rights, not the brand.
Next stage
Build-up of the fulfilment structure for Austria, expansion of the B2B channel and step-by-step preparation of the Western European markets.
Problem Check
Which business decision needs a more reliable basis?
Describe the challenge, affected process and timeframe. In an initial Problem Check, we clarify which questions a dynamic model should answer.
For operational questions, transformation mandates, ERP and digital programmes, and benefits validation.