Branston Ltd Announce Successful Phase 1 LINKFresh®
Implementation
Legacy systems switched off and all information now
centralised on a single powerful business management system" Dr Nick
Turnbull
Branston
Ltd, a leading UK supplier of potatoes to Tesco, today announced that it had
successfully implemented the LINKFresh® business management suite
to run its operations. Working in partnership with Cambridge based Anglia
Business Solutions, the totally integrated solution was deployed within
budget to manage finance, payroll, HR, sales & purchasing, trading,
agronomy, production, account management, QA and dispatch.
“We selected the solution due to the strength of the
underlying Microsoft Dynamics™
NAV technology coupled with the sophisticated fresh produce functionality
developed for us by Anglia”, explained Technical Director Dr. Nick Turnbull.
“The flexibility of Microsoft DynamicsTM NAV enabled Anglia to
model the solution to precisely match our operational practices. We have
replaced all of our legacy systems that were difficult and costly to
maintain with a centralised application with a common look and feel across
all parts of the business. This has already made a significant difference to
our operational efficiency and has proved invaluable as an aid to
communications across the company”.
The powerful Microsoft DynamicsTM NAV
financial suite is at the core of the new system. This tracks and monitors
the revenue and costs of all operations throughout the business. A specially
developed trading module handles the purchasing of raw product and sales to
the end customer. This module also handles all of the returns to growers. A
sophisticated integrated EDI and order splitting application was developed
to manage the distribution of all incoming orders to various production
sites and customer depots. Anglia’s unique .NET mobile technology was used
to capture weighbridge information and automatically synchronize with the
core system.
A QA module captures intake, shelf life, cooking tests
and WIBIT checks while the manufacturing application manages the movement of
boxes between different locations. A grading routine tracks all graded loads
while bar code readers record all customer shipments. An agronomy module
captures grower details of farms, fields, stores and accreditations. It also
covers seed & fertilizer plans, crop observations, dig results, yield
predictions, field, harvest and store QA. An account management module
provides sales information in daily, weekly, monthly and annual figures.
The complete solution was implemented on a powerful
clustered server infrastructure platform designed by Anglia’s infrastructure
team. This provided a secure and resilient base that facilitated access to
the system from various remote locations.
“Having real time access to information on events as
they happen has provided us with a superb aid to meeting and exceeding our
customer service expectations” explained Branston’s Managing Director Graeme
Beattie. “It also provides us with an excellent base from which to grow the
business. The partnership between Branston and Anglia has produced a system
that will enable us compete more effectively using dynamic information as a
competitive advantage”.
David Hurley Managing Director of Anglia comments, “The
Branston implementation is an excellent example of the power of modern mid
range applications in action. This is an extremely sophisticated and wide
ranging integrated solution that is quite rare in the fresh produce
industry. Its success is a tribute to the skill and dedication of the
Branston and Anglia teams who worked on the project”.
For further information on the LINKFresh®
business management solution for the fresh produce industry, please visit
http://www.angliabs.com or email LINKFresh@angliabs.com.
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About Branston
Branston was established in 1969, and began its
partnership with Tesco in 1990.
Today, Branston represent 66% of Tesco’s fresh potato sales and supply,
245,000 tonnes of the highest quality product every year. 190,000 tonnes
come from the company’s own sites in Lincolnshire, Somerset and Scotland,
with a further 55,000 tonnes produced by Tesco alliance partner, QV Foods.
Branston’s business focus is firmly on Tesco and its customers. But to make
sure the company also gives its loyal growers the best service, it markets a
further 110,000 tonnes to other outlets, including processors and food
service companies.
For more information visit
www.branston.co.uk