Europastry

With over 60,000 customers ranging from traditional small family bakeries to major superstores, Europastry support businesses in over 50 countries across the world. Dedicated to providing frozen doughs, Europastry is a world leader in the bakery and pastry sector. Over 30 years ago, the bakery suppliers introduced chilled technology to its operation to encompass a range of pre-fermented and precooked bread and pastries, ready to consume products into their vast portfolio.

As a result, over 2500 product varieties have been added, which, in turn, has increased the complexity of its operations. “We went from being a local company to a business with operations all over the world. Unless we can ensure effective planning, robust inventory policy and consistent management of product obsolescence, this rate of growth can easily result in failure,” says Jordi Fabregat.

Before the implementation of Slim4, Europastry relied upon a software solution from TXT to manage the demand planning process. However, the solution lacked the capability to support complete integration with the production scheduling solution. For this reason, Slimstock’s inventory optimisation solutions, Slim4, won the battle as the preferred solution for inventory management. “For us, it was key to understand the demand so that the factories could be planned correctly. After all, this is essential in order to prevent any distribution problems. Slim4 not only offer this capability but also offered seamless integration with our scheduling software and our ERP, JD Edwards, “explains Fabregat.

Since the introduction of Slim4 in mid-2016, the service level at Europastry has grown by more than 2.5% and currently stands at 97.8%. In addition, as a result of the more reliable forecasts, the need for urgent orders has been eliminated which has also helped mitigate the risk of shrinkage.

This, together with a more effective replenishment of inventory across our distribution network and the ability to model the inventory requirements for future months has had a hugely positive influence on the inventory balance. “Now we give a provide a better level of service which ultimately helps us guarantee customer satisfaction. For us, this is the main thing,” explains the Operations Director.

“For me, the key to the success of Slim4 is that the solution is based upon the principle of management by exception. In a company like ours, with so many SKUs, this is essential. With Slim4, we now know exactly where we need to focus our attention while Slim4 automatically manages 95% of the SKUs,” says Jordi Fabregat.

Innovation and globalisation are the fundamental pillars of Europastry: a company, which is currently in the process of a major expansion. In achieving the business’ global growth objectives, Slim4 will play an important role. “We have a very ambitious business plan in the US and Latin America. We hope to export the supply chain model we have developed in Europe and we will utilise Slim4 to help us optimise operations there.” Jordi Fabregat goes on to conclude: “A solid integration with our scheduling process was key for us. We are now able to provide our customers with a better level of service; a benefit that our customers are delighted about.”