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.

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.

VIDAfresh is a highly experienced, product-based company which sources high quality fresh fruits and vegetables from around the world. The Dartford-based company, which is an industry specialist in melons and pineapples, offers year-round global procurement of citrus through its subsidiary INTERfresh. VIDAfresh’s product portfolio also includes a wide range of products from salad staples, such as lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes, through to melons, sweet potatoes, table grapes and strawberries.

The Challenge

VIDAfresh has had a relationship with Affinitus since its earliest days. The company had an early version of Freshware in place when it officially began life in March 2010, and its relationship with Affinitus has continued to develop in the years since.

However, the challenge, when VIDAfresh looked at installing a new Freshware package was that the company had developed and grown substantially since it’s early days and now required a version of the software adapted to its needs and expectations.

Directly integrated with the $800m Staay Food Group of companies, VIDAfresh now supplies a wide range of fresh fruits, vegetables and salads from locations across the globe including South America, South Africa, Mexico, Turkey and the US.

The company launched its INTERfresh subsidiary in 2013, which focuses on the sourcing of citrus products from around the world.

Key Benefits

• Very cost effective
• Covers stock control, logistics and accounting
• Different modules for different reporting functions
• Enhanced to client’s specific requirements
• Better business management
• Benefits day-to-day operations
• Superb ongoing support