FDBusiness.com

In a challenging economic climate, food and drink companies are looking to their IT systems and their technology partners to help them build an efficient, agile business and, in many cases, to compete on the world stage.

Leading companies in the industry have chosen Datel to implement a Sage solution to increase their efficiency and agility while delivering excellent service.

Walking the Stock Tightrope

It’s a tricky balance: how do you keep just enough items on the shelves to fulfil customer orders, without tying up budget and resources on surplus stock?

In today’s competitive operating climate, companies that get a firm grip on their stock can increase their margins and control the escalating costs of purchasing, storing and managing stock.

Euro Foodbrands Export Ltd, specialist exporter of food to the Middle East, has achieved this balance. The company uses a Sage-based system (Sage 200), implemented by Datel to maintain tight control of its stock. The trigger for moving away from an accounts software package to a more powerful, integrated platform came when the company started to offer frozen foods and needed a deeper level of analysis to track stock movement.

Hassan Ibrahim, Director of Euro Foodbrand Exports, says: “Sage 200 has addressed our core business issues and helps us to maintain control of the business as we grow and to sharpen our competitive edge. It’s a true stock control system, so that now we have easy access to an accurate, real-time picture that enables us to understand what stock we have and what we need to order in, calculate our margins and so on. The system helps us with routine but vital tasks, such as keeping track of shelf-life and sell-by details, so that we reduce wastage to the absolute minimum.”

Commenting on the help received from Datel, Hassan Ibrahim says: “We decided to award the order to Datel. We’ve been very satisfied with the outcome and are happy to recommend Datel – and Sage 200 – to other businesses.”

Less Waste, More Profit

Similarly, Ruskim Seafoods has improved stock control by implementing a new enterprise resource planning system, which in turn makes a marked contribution to profitability. Ruskim Seafoods needed a solution that could be rolled out across all of its six depots and chose a Sage ERP X3 solution from Datel. Gaining visibility of stock wherever it is held means that Ruskim Seafoods avoids unnecessary duplication and waste.

Finance Director Andrew Russell says: “We have information from across the company consolidated within a single location and can view this integrated data in realtime, rather than retrospectively. We can see which stock is held at which depot and no longer have to call the depot to check.”

He also praises Datel’s expertise: “The whole Datel team is very knowledgeable and can always be relied upon to provide solutions to achieve our objectives.”

Join the Leaders

Many leading companies in the food and drink industry run their business on a Sage solution from Datel. They include Nichols plc, Grace Foods (UK) Ltd, Baird Foods and Xpress Fish. Visit Datel’swebsite for the food and drink industry at www.datel.info/sectors/food-and-drink to find out why.

You can also download a report with the results of a survey of nearly 250 senior decision-makers in the food and drink manufacturing sector.

To find out how Datel’s knowledge of best practice and commercial insight could help you to meet the unique challenges of operating in the food and drink industry: Call 0845 521 1875 or Email enquiries@datelgroup.com.

“Datel has outstanding knowledge and experience of using Sage within the food and drinks industry, and a deep understanding of our business, not just our IT infrastructure” – Allan Doyle, Group IT Manager, Nichols plc.