Infor Helps Big Bear Reduce Stock Holding and Improve Forecasting Accuracy
Infor SCM Demand Planning to Improve Customer Service for Maker of Sugar Puffs and Fox’s Products
Las Vegas, NV, September 14, 2007 --(PR.com)-- Infor today announced that food giant Big Bear Ltd has purchased Infor SCM Demand Planning Inventory Planner and Infor SCM Replenishment Planning. Big Bear, which owns Honey Monster Foods and Fox’s Confectionary, will use Infor SCM to reduce stock holding by 5 per cent, improve customer service, and provide greater forecasting accuracy for operational and strategic use. The solution will also be used to significantly reduce the manual effort required to produce, evaluate and monitor sales forecasts.
Infor SCM will be used throughout the sales and supply chain functions of Fox’s Confectionary and all products under the Sugar Puffs brand. This implementation follows Big Bear’s recent purchase of Infor EAM MP2 which the group is using to improve its management and reliability of all manufacturing assets.
“Infor’s proven capabilities in the food and beverage market meant that they understood our business needs from the outset and were able to deliver a business-specific solution which would help us to achieve our business goals,” said Stuart Riches, group IT controller for Big Bear.
“We have experienced significant growth year on year and introduced a number of new products. With our products now selling in more countries and across more channels than ever before, we needed a solution that could automate and predict the total demand on our business, across all the products and all the seasons. This meant dropping the spreadsheets.”
He continues: “In order to maintain our already high levels of customer service without additional investment in inventory, we needed to streamline our sales and operations planning processes. To achieve this it was essential to gauge an accurate picture of demand so that we could improve forecasting and efficiency across our whole supply chain.”
“We are delighted that Big Bear Ltd has decided to expand its existing and successful relationship with Infor,” said Andrew Kinder, Product Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Infor. “Having already benefited through the use of Infor EAM software, Big Bear will now deploy a business-specific SCM solution, which with Infor’s deep domain expertise within the food and beverage industry, will provide Big Bear with key support for its planning in order to increase visibility, drive efficiencies and support business growth.”
Infor’s Supply Chain Management solutions enable the world’s leading companies to improve their profitability, competitiveness and growth through network design, demand and supply chain planning, manufacturing optimisation, warehousing, transportation management and supply chain analytics. By synchronizing cycles of demand, supply and replenishment, Infor’s solutions allow its customers to get their product to their customers quickly and cost-effectively.
About Big Bear
Big Bear Ltd was established in 2003 to acquire Fox's Confectionery from Northern Foods. The management team came together with the aim of acquiring and reviving long-loved, heritage food brands, which had suffered from a lack of focus and under-investment from recent owners.
Fox’s Confectionery
Since the acquisition of Fox's Confectionery by Big Bear, the key brands of Fox's Glacier, Paynes Poppets, Just Brazils and XXX Mints have seen significant growth through a broad range of distribution channels driven by focus and investment.
Honey Monster Foods
The latest additions to the Big Bear portfolio are the iconic Honey Monster's Sugar Puffs breakfast cereals and Harvest cereal bar brands which were acquired from PepsiCo in September 2006. These products will continue to be produced in Southall, Middlesex under the new company banner of Honey Monster Foods.
www.bigbearltd.co.uk
About Infor
Infor delivers business-specific software to enterprising organizations. With experience built in, Infor’s solutions enable businesses of all sizes to be more enterprising and adapt to the rapid changes of a global marketplace. With more than 70,000 customers, Infor is changing what businesses expect from an enterprise software provider. For additional information, visit www.infor.com.
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Infor SCM will be used throughout the sales and supply chain functions of Fox’s Confectionary and all products under the Sugar Puffs brand. This implementation follows Big Bear’s recent purchase of Infor EAM MP2 which the group is using to improve its management and reliability of all manufacturing assets.
“Infor’s proven capabilities in the food and beverage market meant that they understood our business needs from the outset and were able to deliver a business-specific solution which would help us to achieve our business goals,” said Stuart Riches, group IT controller for Big Bear.
“We have experienced significant growth year on year and introduced a number of new products. With our products now selling in more countries and across more channels than ever before, we needed a solution that could automate and predict the total demand on our business, across all the products and all the seasons. This meant dropping the spreadsheets.”
He continues: “In order to maintain our already high levels of customer service without additional investment in inventory, we needed to streamline our sales and operations planning processes. To achieve this it was essential to gauge an accurate picture of demand so that we could improve forecasting and efficiency across our whole supply chain.”
“We are delighted that Big Bear Ltd has decided to expand its existing and successful relationship with Infor,” said Andrew Kinder, Product Marketing, Supply Chain Management, Infor. “Having already benefited through the use of Infor EAM software, Big Bear will now deploy a business-specific SCM solution, which with Infor’s deep domain expertise within the food and beverage industry, will provide Big Bear with key support for its planning in order to increase visibility, drive efficiencies and support business growth.”
Infor’s Supply Chain Management solutions enable the world’s leading companies to improve their profitability, competitiveness and growth through network design, demand and supply chain planning, manufacturing optimisation, warehousing, transportation management and supply chain analytics. By synchronizing cycles of demand, supply and replenishment, Infor’s solutions allow its customers to get their product to their customers quickly and cost-effectively.
About Big Bear
Big Bear Ltd was established in 2003 to acquire Fox's Confectionery from Northern Foods. The management team came together with the aim of acquiring and reviving long-loved, heritage food brands, which had suffered from a lack of focus and under-investment from recent owners.
Fox’s Confectionery
Since the acquisition of Fox's Confectionery by Big Bear, the key brands of Fox's Glacier, Paynes Poppets, Just Brazils and XXX Mints have seen significant growth through a broad range of distribution channels driven by focus and investment.
Honey Monster Foods
The latest additions to the Big Bear portfolio are the iconic Honey Monster's Sugar Puffs breakfast cereals and Harvest cereal bar brands which were acquired from PepsiCo in September 2006. These products will continue to be produced in Southall, Middlesex under the new company banner of Honey Monster Foods.
www.bigbearltd.co.uk
About Infor
Infor delivers business-specific software to enterprising organizations. With experience built in, Infor’s solutions enable businesses of all sizes to be more enterprising and adapt to the rapid changes of a global marketplace. With more than 70,000 customers, Infor is changing what businesses expect from an enterprise software provider. For additional information, visit www.infor.com.
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Infor
Kayla Eubanks
404-601-3660 x 112
www.infor.com
Kayla Eubanks
404-601-3660 x 112
www.infor.com
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