Pukka Herbs supplements growth with IFS Applications 9
End-to-end ERP solution implemented to improve resource management for global organic foods brand
IFS, the global enterprise applications company, today announced that Pukka Herbs, the organic herbal tea and supplement company, will implement IFS Applications™ 9 to integrate and automate processes across its global operations, in a deal worth £500k.
Founded in 2001 by entrepreneurs Sebastian Pole and Tim Westwell, Pukka Herbs is an entirely organic business and works with over 5,000 growers across the world, offering herbal teas, food supplements and formulas in over 40 countries. The company’s portfolio includes over 35 forms of fruit & herbal tea and over 75 wellbeing supplements.
With a rapidly expanding international presence and a complex supply chain involving multiple sub-contractors across its shipping, storage and manufacturing operations, Pukka Herbs chose IFS’s comprehensive ERP solution to centralize management processes and gain greater oversight of its assets. The company sought to refresh its legacy IT infrastructure.
With IFS Applications 9, Pukka Herbs will streamline and have complete control of its entire product lifecycle, including third-party procurement of raw materials from India, packing of products in warehouses across the UK, and shipping to third-party distributors worldwide. The company will use the solution to manage these operations, and to obtain a holistic and real-time view of its assets across inventory, supply chain, CRM, quality management, assurance and finance, human resources, graphical forecasting, and document management.
Pukka Herbs elected to switch its enterprise software provider after a sustained period of growth. From beginnings in Pole and Westwell’s spare bedroom in 2001, the company has enjoyed rapid growth, growing at an average yearly rate of 30%. During this period, the company has taken on new distribution partners in regions including Australia, Hong Kong, the United States and across Western Europe. As a result, the business was looking for a flexible platform that could improve efficiencies and help employees make smarter, data-driven decisions.
Pukka Herbs’ growth has come during a burgeoning period for health food markets, particularly in the UK. Organic UK food sales defied a decline in overall food spending in 2014, growing by four per cent, and are expected to increase on a global basis by a steady four per cent over the next four years. The same is true for herbal tea—between 2012 and 2014 the total volume of green tea sold in the UK increased by over 50 per cent, and fruit and herbal teas were up by 31 per cent over the same period.
“As our operations expanded into new markets and product lines, it became clear that we required a better way of tracking and planning processes, which wasn’t easy with our diverse product development and distribution methods,” David Anderson, Head of Sustainability at Pukka Herbs, said. “As an entrepreneurial business, we didn’t want a solution that would anchor us in so much process that we ground to a halt, and IFS’s flexibility will help us to achieve this. We’re looking forward to continuing our ongoing relationship and the significant business benefits it will bring.”
IFS UK managing director Paul Massey said, “Pukka Herbs is a true British success story. The company’s growth has outperformed a very strong market in recent years, which has led to the expansion of its UK team and increasing demand from its international customer base. This growth has brought challenges, however, and the team knew that in order to sustain flexible and controlled growth, they needed an ERP solution agile enough to support this.”
Massey continued, “From our first meeting, there were clear similarities between Pukka and IFS. We are both passionate about our products and have a professional yet close relationship with our customers and suppliers. The management team wanted a solution which would fit their business well, with a strong user interface that could free up time for back-office staff and management, and this is exactly what IFS offers them. We’re very excited about supporting the company’s continued growth going forward.”
Following the core implementation, the company intends to continue to expand the system use across all aspects of the business as part of its ongoing development.
Christine Murphy, Marketing Manager, IFS UK. Telephone: 44 (0) 149 44 28 991, press@ifsworld.com
About Pukka Herbs
Pukka create delicious teas and incredible wellbeing supplements, helping people discover a healthier, happier life. ‘Pukka’ means authentic and this is at the heart of everything the organisation does. From the organic, fairly traded herbs, carefully sourced from over 50 countries worldwide, to the fact that Pukka gives 1% of its turnover to support the work of environmental non-profit making organisations.
About IFS
IFS™ is a globally recognized leader in developing and delivering enterprise software for enterprise resource planning (ERP), enterprise asset management (EAM) and enterprise service management (ESM). IFS brings customers in targeted sectors closer to their business, helps them be more agile and enables them to profit from change. IFS is a public company (XSTO: IFS) founded in 1983 and currently has over 2,700 employees. IFS supports more than 2,400 customers worldwide from its network of local offices and through a growing ecosystem of partners. For more information visit: www.ifsworld.com.
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