Microsoft Fabric powers retail data transformation at scale

Adastra leveraged Microsoft Fabric to create a scalable, robust data analytics solution that helped Heritage Grocers Group maintain high-quality customer service during a period of rapid expansion.

July 30, 2025

Rapid expansion introduces new layers of complexity for any business, especially when high customer standards remain a top priority. Between 2022 and 2024, Heritage Grocers Group did just that thanks to several strategic acquisitions. Operating in six states and specializing in catering to Hispanic communities under banners such as Los Altos Ranch Market, Cardenas Markets, El Rancho Supermercado, and Tony’s Fresh Market, the company found itself growing fast. With this growth, however, came the need for a scalable, robust way to manage and analyze vast amounts of data—one that could account for the unique purchasing preferences of diverse communities and geographic locations while maintaining high data consistency and availability.

Enter Adastra, a data analytics and IT consulting company and Microsoft partner with a proven track record in analytics, business intelligence, AI, and process automation. With specializations across Data & AI, Infrastructure, and Digital & App Innovation and a 2024 Partner of the Year Award for Data & AI (Americas), Adastra was uniquely positioned to help Heritage Grocers Group overcome their data challenges. Together, they embarked on a journey to transform how the group collects, organizes, and analyzes data, leveraging cutting-edge technologies like Microsoft Fabric and Azure OpenAI Service.

Maintaining high standards of quality while expanding operations

To maintain high quality standards and customer satisfaction across various geographic locations and customer segments throughout the acquisition process, Heritage Grocers Group recognized the need to better understand their customer data. With each newly acquired banner came large swaths of point-of-sale (POS) data from various enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems across their portfolio—and, with each banner catering to slightly different clientele and running its own reports with no standardized models or definitions, Heritage Grocers Group recognized the need for a solution that could gather, organize, and analyze vast amounts of POS data across a wide portfolio and ultimately unify their data estate and ability to generate predictive analytics.

Prabash Coswatte, Chief Operating Officer of Heritage Grocers Group, said, “Understanding the unique purchasing preferences of the Texas customer compared to those of Tony’s in Chicago is crucial. The quicker we grasp this, the better we can cater to each community’s needs.”

Person seated at a table using a laptop.

After being introduced at an event co-hosted by Microsoft, Heritage engaged Adastra to develop a scalable solution that would effectively organize large amounts of data with high availability and consistent, high-fidelity results that could process years of historical data and scale and flex with any future changes. Adding to the complexity was the timeline—Heritage recognized that while a regular engagement of this size could take a year to 18 months, they needed to get it done in six months—and the sheer volume of data, which was in the terabytes.

"Our partnership with Microsoft and Adastra has seamlessly unified data from various sources, providing us with a singular source of truth to better orchestrate and oversee our operations."

—Darla Sebastian, Vice President of Special Projects, Heritage Grocers Group

Harnessing the power of Microsoft Fabric

To effectively and accurately analyze such large amounts of data—while also preparing to scale with future growth—Adastra utilized a comprehensive data analytics and AI framework in the form of Lucid Data Hub. This powerful tool uses both Microsoft Fabric and Azure OpenAI Service for the generative insights and data engineering acceleration required to augment and streamline the manual efforts required for this initiative. This solution, according to Adastra, transforms the organization’s approach to data unification and analytics, delivering automated data workflows and data accessibility. Heritage Grocers Group’s ERPs already ran on Microsoft Dynamics 365, making integration a seamless process.

The decision to tap into Fabric came from recognizing the transformative potential of AI within the company’s ERP system, combining enormous amounts of historical and upcoming data to fuel AI-driven decisions, increasing speed and accuracy and preventing gaps in the quality customers expect from the many banners under the company’s umbrella—a huge win when considering the bumpy transitions many acquired brands experience. Microsoft Fabric was instrumental in unifying analytics, reporting, and data warehousing for all of Heritage Grocers Group’s data objectives.

Person explaining a concept to a group of people.

"The power behind our acceleration is Microsoft Fabric. The extensive automation through generative Al has significantly cut capital expenditures."

—Dilraj Sehdev, Senior Vice President, Adastra

Using cutting-edge technology for speed and fluidity

Once the data lake was established, Adastra began automating the classification of historical data, which included processing multiple years’ worth of POS transaction data—a monumental task that Lucid Data Hub handled with efficiency and precision. The Adastra solution was able to process terabytes of data (or multiple billions of item transactions), giving Heritage Grocers Group an enormous, easily accessible amount of processed data that effectively told them what their customers want, broken down by segment. By developing a scalable, company-wide solution and automating these processes in only six months, Adastra saved the company time and over $500,000. Coswatte said of the solution, “The process’s speed and fluidity were astonishing.”

The partnership between Adastra and Heritage Grocers Group is a testament to the potential of AI-powered solutions and collaboration. By combining cutting-edge Microsoft technology and Adastra’s expertise, Heritage Grocers Group has overcome their data challenges—and unlocked new opportunities for sustainable growth.

As businesses face increasing pressure to adapt to rapidly changing markets, Adastra’s Fabric solution can serve as an example of what is possible when scalable infrastructure and real-time insights come together.

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