Uncategorised

Emma & Tom’s – growing with JCurve ERP

Founded in 2004, Emma & Tom’s makes a range of whole fruit products, including juices, snack bars and iced teas containing fruit, seeds and nuts. The business philosophy of “Look After Yourself” runs deep and is reflected by its minimally processed, all-natural ingredients with natural vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

Headquartered in Melbourne, the business has four distribution centres located in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Emma & Tom’s distributes its products to over 5,000 stockists nationally including cafes, delicatessens and supermarkets.

The business had outgrown its accounting software and was struggling with a high volume of transactions and an inadequate inventory management system. At the same time, cloud technology had been gaining momentum. ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software solutions were becoming more readily available thanks to the increasing popularity of cloud-based delivery. With ambitions of one day taking Emma & Tom’s international, the business needed an integrated business solution that was not only effective and scalable, but also featured high volume accounting capability, multi-site inventory management, customer management, as well as integrated purchasing and invoicing.

“We needed a solution that would streamline and optimise our operations, allow our workforce to be more flexible, scale as the company grew and offered cloud-based cost benefits by eliminating the need for servers and updates,” explained Emma Welsh, co-founder of Emma & Tom’s.

An all-in-one cloud solution
Emma & Tom’s explored JCurve ERP, a small business offering that had enterprise roots. The software provides affordable access to NetSuite, a globally renowned cloud ERP software suite. It delivers the core functionality of NetSuite at a low cost-of-entry edition. It was a perfect solution, being an all-in-one cloud product that allowed entire businesses to run their core operations from a single platform. Businesses starting with JCurve ERP gained the unique flexibility to transition seamlessly to NetSuite editions for larger businesses as they continued to grow.

The decision to implement JCurve ERP proved to be extremely positive for Emma & Tom’s. The software’s industry-specific business processes for food and beverage manufacturers and wholesalers supported the operations and helped promote faster growth.

The power to manage multiple inventory locations and stock lines through JCurve ERP’s unified solution empowered strong growth for Emma & Tom’s after implementation in 2013. “It’s given us the ability to handle more products and orders – and the complexities associated with this. Dealing in fresh foods requires zero lag in operations and JCurve ERP meets this requirement perfectly,” noted Welsh.

Working with JCurve Solutions’ team of experienced implementation consultants to deploy the system into their workplace, Welsh elected for a forward-thinking approach. “We decided to bring over only essential historical data, a decision which gave us the ability to more clearly focus on future growth,” she said.

It was a decision that freed the business up to focus on the future and set up the inventory management, production management, planning, payroll and accounting functions of the system for their next phase of growth. “We know there are still more features in the platform to take advantage of, and we’re working closely with JCurve Solutions to enhance them specifically for our needs. JCurve Solutions’ commitment to our unique business has been really great,” added Welsh.

Since implementing the software, Emma & Tom’s has been able to handle more products and has extended its range. They now employ over 60 staff and have expanded operations into China. The company’s vision of taking the brand international has become a reality, and having the right technology and experience to support it, provides a solid base for continued growth.

JCurve Solutions is proudly sponsoring the “Health Foods” category at the upcoming Food & Beverage Industry Awards.

Send this to a friend