How Saltz Powers Fresh Food Logistics Across Europe with Routific

Saltz is a fast-growing premium food marketplace serving dozens of cities across Europe. It connects farms, fishing operators, and regional suppliers directly with buyers in restaurants, hotels, and retailers.

Solving the problem of a broken fresh food delivery system

The business is based on a key insight from cofounder Reinis Strodahs, a supply chain veteran with two decades of experience in the European restaurant supply industry. He saw clearly how inefficient the system had become: Produce, which makes up nearly 30% of a restaurant’s costs, typically passes through two or three layers of intermediaries. Every layer adds markups, complexity, and opacity to the supply chain.

Strodahs teamed up with brothers Tomas and Andrius Slimas, previously co-founders of dropshipping platform Oberlo. After selling Oberlo to Shopify, they worked at Shopify as Directors of Marketing and Product, and later crossed paths with Strodahs.

It was their shared recognition of a broken system, combined with the Slimas brothers’ track record in scaling tech platforms, that gave rise to Saltz: a marketplace built to connect suppliers directly with food buyers, cutting out middlemen and delivering fresher ingredients faster.

Connecting farms, fisheries, and suppliers directly to chefs

Saltz doesn't operate any traditional warehouses. Instead, they run an on-demand logistics service where each product is picked up from the supplier and delivered straight to the customer in the fastest possible time. 

“Thanks to Saltz, finding the best fresh ingredients from top-tier producers is easier than ever. The seamless access to high-quality products streamlines our sourcing and ensures consistent quality over time.” — Silvio Pfeufer, Head Chef at Mathias Restaurant in Berlin

But fresh food delivery is a different beast than typical e-commerce. Products have to move quickly through the supply chain, often within hours of arriving at the cross-dock, and every order must be delivered on time to keep customers happy.

That means coordinating supplier shipments, cross-dock operations, and final delivery with very little margin for error. 

The challenge: Coordinating logistics

“People often underestimate how complicated route planning really is,” said Saltz cofounder Tomas Slimas. “We’re tech people — we know how to build things — but route planning is a whole different challenge.”

Saltz turned to Routific to handle the complexity of last-mile delivery. Their team integrated Routific’s API directly into their own systems, so delivery data — addresses, phone numbers, and time windows — flows automatically into Routific. Optimized routes are generated instantly and pushed straight to drivers.

“We trust Routific’s routes,” Tomas said. “Our dispatcher barely touches the system — it just works.”

For example, one of the biggest challenges for Saltz is delivering to restaurants and hotels that have strict opening and closing times. Missing a time window can mean wasted product and disappointed customers.

“Time windows are critical for us,” Tomas said. “Routific helps us manage those constraints so our drivers stay on schedule and our customers get exactly what they need, when they can actually receive it.”

Faster, more reliable deliveries

Automating delivery planning with Routific has several advantages for Saltz’s daily operations:

• Dispatchers don’t need to spend time making manual changes to routes.
• Drivers get a clear, easy-to-use app to navigate and manage their stops. 

At the same time, Saltz exports delivery data back out of Routific into their own control tower, giving them full visibility into when each delivery was completed, how long it took, and overall driver performance.

“At the end of the day, the data we pull from Routific is just as valuable as the routes themselves,” Tomas said. “It gives us a clear picture of how our deliveries are actually performing, so we can spot inefficiencies, coach our drivers, and make smarter decisions about where to expand next.”

Streamlined logistics creates time to focus on business growth

By automating route planning, Saltz has freed up valuable time to focus on scaling their marketplace instead of worrying about logistics. Deliveries are consistently faster, more efficient, and more reliable, keeping both chefs and suppliers happy.

“For our drivers, Routific is an off-the-shelf solution that just works. The app is easy to use, gives them optimized routes, and helps us consistently hit strict delivery time windows with accurate ETAs. That makes all the difference.” — Tomas Slimas

Saltz now trusts Routific to power their last-mile operations day after day, confident the system will handle complexity in the background while their business continues to grow.