When J R Holland continued expansion left with the requirement to update their existing UNIX based system, they were able to export their existing data directly into the new Chefserve product also provided by Affinitus Group who already had a complete understanding of their business.
Hazel Fletcher Director
With over 125 Years of being in business, HL Hall & Sons Group continues to expand and move forward, with annual sales of avocados alone topping 5 million cartons last year. Operating in 4 countries, but with sales all over the world, 2014 became an essential time for the business to gain greater control over the business and make use of modern technology.
A specialist in avocados, mangos and limes, as well as a huge range of other sub-tropical exotics including lychees, pineapples and pomegranates, HL Hall has a sizeable presence in the UK, from where it also oversees the company’s operations in mainland Europe
Paul Devlin, MD of Halls UK and European states, we were doing well, but keeping track of stock, ripened product, incoming shipments that may have departed 21 days ago, and letting our Europeans clients know of our availability was proving cumbersome with our existing ERP system. Following an extensive review which included all the specialist Produce ERP systems and the more generic worldwide ERP systems, we chose Freshware. It was obvious that these guys knew our business, and more importantly were listening to our current problems and coming up with solutions even before we had committed to their product.
The Freshware system was installed into Tonbridge based UK office during early 2015, and subsequently rolled out to the other European sites and had an immediate positive impact on the business. During Early 2016, Halls have started to roll out the WMS modules within Freshware, so they can monitor product within their extensive ripening facilities in Rungis, France.
In little over 5 years, we have grown through both organic growth and acquisition from a 10 man unit to over 80 staff, covering 20 routes with a turnover of £10.5 million and Chefserve has been utilised from day 1 and accommodated every expansion and business improvement we needed to make.
The new Chefserve Wallboard gives me an immediate overview of the whole business and daily KPI’s without management needing to run any reports.
Premier Catering have been one of the first adopters of both the handhelds stock control system, and integrated weigh scales and pick stations. Both have which have saved valuable staff costs but more importantly they have seen their wastage values reduced by almost 60%.
Jason Tanner, Chairman. Premier Catering
Premier Fruits is the UK’s largest independent wholesaler and supplier of fresh fruit, vegetables, exotics and salads. Based in New Covent Garden Market, the company covers London and Southern England, supplying a wide range of products that includes everything from apples and pears through to pecan nuts, quince, dragon fruit and curly kale. Originally based in Western International Market, before moving to New Covent Garden, Premier Fruits has grown over its 16 years in business to cover nine units at its south London site, employing some 50 members of staff.
The Challenge
For its first 14 years in business, Premier Fruits relied on a hugely time-consuming manual system for its record keeping, invoicing and order processing, where staff members would write out tickets, check weights and update the purchase ledger. Convinced of the need to move to a fully-computerised solution, managing director Jason Tanner began looking for a system that could free up employees from administrative duties, so they could concentrate on more productive tasks.
However, as a company that works as both a wholesale and catering supplier, Premier Fruits required a solution that could meet all of its needs both now and in the future.
The Solution
Since moving over to Freshware in 2014, Tanner says there has been a marked change for the better in the way Premier Fruits does business, although he admits that updating the company’s working methods was not without its challenges.
“I was a bit dubious about going to a fully-automated computerised system,” he says. “It was very hard work for the first six-12 months, getting people to change the ways they did things and to trust the system, but three years down the line – and we’ve got salesmen ranging from 18 to 62 years old – and not one salesman would go back to writing tickets out.”
Rather than eliminating jobs, Tanner says having Freshware in place has made Premier Fruits more efficient as a company, enabling employees to spend time on tasks of benefit to the business rather than having to deal with paperwork. “I said to my staff, ‘the aim is not to get rid of you, the aim is to make the company more efficient,’ and that is what we have succeeded in doing,” he explains.
As an all-in-one solution, Tanner says Freshware provided to be the best option available on the market. “Freshware was the best on everything from the selling side to the accounts programme to just to the ease of use, and when you wanted to make an alteration, Affinitus was there and willing to do it,” he says.
More recently, Premier Fruits has also implemented Chefserve, and Tanner says the system has immediately demonstrated its benefits. “On the catering side, we have just rolled out the scales – the system is interlinked with the scales and that has probably saved us four to five hours a night of one person’s role, which was just doing weight changes. Now, the system automatically updates it and that’s been a tremendous success,” he explains.
Key Benefits
– Eliminates time-consuming paperwork
– Cost-effective
– Automatic daily invoicing and order confirmations
– Faster order response time
– Accurate weighing eliminates give-away
– Timely support
Testimonials
“The profit margin reports are so easy. We would say that it’s the best system on the market – a complete all-rounder on the wholesale and the catering side,” – Jason Tanner, managing director Premier Fruits
