How a Good Idea Became a Successful Food Wholesaler Operating Across Europe
Over the course of my career, I have been involved in many ERP projects. Family businesses, medium-sized companies, international corporations and a number of start-ups. Every project is different. Some take only a few months, while others stay with you for many years. And sometimes you meet a company where, from the very first conversation, you have a sense that something significant could develop.
That is exactly how I felt about HW Foods.
Today, five years later, we have published a detailed Success Story together. It covers the technical development of the project, its international scope and the system landscape in place today. But while working on it, I realised that something was missing: the story behind it. Before HW Foods became the food wholesaler operating across Europe that it is today, there was a first meeting at our office in Pforzheim, an entrepreneur with a clear idea and an ERP project that was only just beginning.
It Wasn’t a Typical Implementation Project
Many ERP projects begin with workshops about existing processes, data migrations and system landscapes that have evolved over many years.
HW Foods was different.
The company was a new business. There was no legacy data to migrate, no historically grown structures and no complicated legacy processes. Instead, we built the master data together. I still remember that we started with just over twenty products. To an outsider, that might sound like a small project. To me, it was the beginning of something that would continue to develop over the years that followed. With a standard installation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, the DATEV chart of accounts and the necessary training, the company was operational within a short period of time. Financial accounting was deliberately left with the tax adviser initially. For a company of that size at the time, it was exactly the right approach and showed that digital transformation does not mean having to do everything at once. Sometimes, the pragmatic solution is the better solution.
Something Else Impressed Me
What has stayed with me most was not the technology.
It was Louis Weber.
You can usually tell quite quickly whether someone simply wants to buy an ERP system or already has a clear vision for their business. Mr Weber clearly belonged to the second group. He knew exactly which customers he wanted to win, which processes would be required and that professional growth would only be possible with a professional system landscape. This is particularly important in the food industry. Anyone supplying major retail chains needs to be able to handle EDI, manage batches and best-before dates reliably and meet a wide range of requirements from retail partners. We never really had to debate any of that. The direction was clear from the outset.
With Every New Customer, the Project Grew Too
Things really started to get interesting after go-live. Every new customer brought new requirements. In food wholesale, hardly any two projects are the same. New logistics partners, different processes and the requirements of major retailers mean that an ERP system has to evolve continuously. That is exactly what we have experienced together over the past few years. One particularly interesting aspect was the integration of logistics processes. Information relating to deliveries, batches and best-before dates had to be processed reliably in Business Central so that it remained available throughout the entire process – from goods receipt through to invoicing. In food wholesale, this is an essential requirement for smooth operations. As HW Foods grew, more and more national and international retail partners were added. Each had its own requirements for electronic data interchange. At the same time, different ways of working also had to be accommodated on the purchasing side. Not all information was already available digitally or in a standardised format. We therefore developed solutions together that automate existing processes as far as possible without making them unnecessarily complicated.
For me, that is what good ERP consulting is about: not imposing the same standard process on every company, but working together to find an approach that fits the business and can grow with it.
At Some Point, You Realise the Company Has “Grown Up”
When you work with a company over several years, your perspective on the project changes too. At some point, you stop thinking about how many products were originally created or which integration was developed most recently. Instead, you see how a small start-up gradually becomes an established business.
Today, HW Foods supplies customers in 28 European countries, works with numerous retail chains and manages complex international processes using Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. One external warehouse became many, a handful of products became an extensive range, and a good idea became a successful business. Our latest Success Story illustrates this development particularly well.
An ERP Project Is Never Really Finished
Many people assume that an ERP project ends at go-live. In my experience, that is often when the real collaboration begins. Companies continue to evolve. New customers come on board, markets change and so does technology. As a result, the ERP system continues to grow with the business. That is exactly what we are experiencing again now. Having updated HW Foods to the latest version of Business Central, we are now preparing the next step together – the move to the Microsoft Public Cloud. Another new chapter is beginning. And I am genuinely looking forward to it just as much as I looked forward to that first project.
What Five Years of Working Together Have Shown
When I look at HW Foods today, I am of course pleased that, from a technical perspective, we have built a modern and high-performance ERP solution. But I am even more pleased about the journey the company has taken. I remember our first conversation in Pforzheim, the first products, the first master data and the first decisions we made together. Back then, much of what we discussed was still in the future. Today, it has become a company operating across Europe.
Perhaps that makes me a little proud. Not because we implemented an ERP system, but because we have had the opportunity to support this company for five years and watch a young start-up grow into an established and successful food wholesaler. That is also why we are only publishing the Success Story today. Some projects need time before they have a story to tell. And some stories deserve to be about more than just the technology – they deserve to tell the story of the journey that got us there.
Download the Success Story
Discover in our detailed Success Story how HW Foods used Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central to grow from a start-up into a food wholesaler operating across Europe. The Success Story shows how ERP, EDI processes and a scalable system landscape have supported the company’s sustainable growth – with insights into the challenges, solutions and developments throughout five years of working together.
ERP Solutions for Food Wholesale
Every food wholesale business faces its own challenges – from batch and best-before date management to EDI integrations and collaboration with major retail chains. On our industry page, you can find out how Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central can be tailored to the specific requirements of the food industry and which solutions OTE offers for manufacturers, importers and wholesalers.
→ Learn More About ERP Solutions for Food Wholesale
