Retail Case Study
Business benefits of Keelings Knowledge
- Flexible ERP built specifically for the fresh produce industry
- Increased visibility of costs, for improved negotiations with suppliers
- Increased control over the business, leading to better decision making
About Client
- HQ: Europe
- Annual turnover €300 million +
- 1,200 employees
Past
Company A, (anonymised; for client confidentiality) a successful European retail business grows, imports and supplies fruit, vegetables and flowers to retail multiples throughout a region in Europe. Complete with its own transportation fleet that delivers to its customers’ distribution centres. In the past, Business A needed to use ERP software from third-party providers but this often came without specific capability that was matched to the particular needs of the fresh produce sector. This drove the company to seek fresh produce specific ERP software based on the expertise of experience within the industry. Fresh produce by its nature has a short lifespan, with fast turnaround times that mean the produce needs to be warehoused, packaged and sold quickly. The ability to track all of those elements was essential.
“We could have soft fruit arriving in on Monday morning and they could be gone on Monday evening. We needed a system to keep up with that, so over time, we sought a very flexible system to do that,”
Financial Director
Present
Company A used Keelings Knowledge to track fresh produce from the moment it arrives from their grower, to its time on the production line and in storage, right through to when it leaves for delivery to customers. “We run all metrics through Keelings Knowledge: quality reporting, production reporting, sales reporting and supplier reporting. Keelings Knowledge provides us with visibility of every aspect of the business, from quality metrics of the fruit coming in, to the production costs of the labour. The system tracks the produce in our warehouse,”
“Many other companies have a generic ERP system that could do certain levels of reporting, but it may not be all linked, whereas we now have a system that does all the reporting we require.”
Financial Director
- Quality reporting: Keelings Knowledge provides visibility of the quality of produce as it arrives and during its time in the warehouse and in production
- Sales reporting: up-to-date information about the level of sales that our’ team can use in customer
- meetings or internal conversations
- Supplier reporting: Keelings Knowledge ERP provides ongoing quality metrics for the fresh produce in its stores and shows profitability by supplier
- As the system is automated, manual input and consequently manual error is reduced
Future
Fresh produce is a low-margin business, which means it’s essential to get information on time to enable executives to make decisions and plan for the future. We subsequently expanded our use of Keelings Knowledge ERP to provide all of our company’s financial reporting, through a management reporting tool and this has given our company daily visibility into profitability. “I’ve never seen this level of financial reporting. I don’t think many companies would be as advanced in this type of reporting, because it’s real time. I thought daily profitability was impossible, but you can achieve it once there’s a drive for it.” says B.
“Other ERP systems are built by IT people and developers who don’t understand the industry. Keelings Knowledge ERP is built on the knowledge of the people who have worked in the industry for 20 years.”
Financial Director
