Small Family-Owned Bakery Sees the Benefits in Trading Electronically GAITHERSBURG, Md. and LONDON, Sept. 17
GAITHERSBURG, Md. and LONDON, Sept. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- GXS, a leading
provider of business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce solutions, today announced
that Maclean's Highland Bakery, a bakery supplier to Tesco, has adopted GXS
Intelligent Web Forms (IWF) to help the bakery in its drive to increase
business with retail customers. The deployment, which was recently completed,
has already led to increased sales, greater efficiencies and fewer
out-of-stocks for Maclean's bakery products at stores. Maclean's is a
family-owned business that previously managed all its orders and invoices via
manual, paper-based processes which limited the company's insights into
product levels at stores and also limited its ability to grow sales at
existing stores or add new ones.
GXS IWF has helped Maclean's automate some key business processes
including order receipt and processing and electronic invoice generation. The
company supplies Tesco with 'premium morning goods' such as rolls, biscuits
and scones. The orders for these products were previously managed manually and
involved regular, frequent car journeys by a member of Maclean's staff to the
local Tesco stores to check on stock levels and pick up paper purchase orders
in person. Now, the local Tesco stores send their orders to Maclean's
electronically using electronic data interchange (EDI). This has improved the
on-shelf availability of Maclean's' products, leading to a steady increase in
sales since Maclean's started using IWF earlier this year. The efficiency
gains have meant the company has also been able to increase the number of
Tesco stores it supplies by 66 percent, with hopes for further expansion in
the coming months.
"Using GXS IWF has brought us distinct benefits: payments are made more
quickly and we save a lot of time and effort when compared to our old manual
processes. The thing I really like is the demand visibility we have gained,"
said Lewis Maclean, the company's Managing Director. "Now, everyone knows
where they stand and we know when an item needs to be restocked, which gives
us reassurance and peace of mind."
As part of GXS' on-demand, B2B integration services platform, GXS Trading
Grid, IWF enables a company to trade electronically without the need to
purchase, install and manage additional software. It is designed for
businesses with small or even no IT department and enables them to quickly and
cost-effectively participate in EDI and other initiatives introduced by larger
trading partners. With GXS IWF, companies can reap the benefits of e-commerce
without significant cost or complexity. Using IWF, companies like Maclean's
Highland Bakery can quickly and easily begin electronic trading with business
partners without delay.
"Maclean's Highland Bakery is a text-book example of how a small, local
company can work efficiently with a much larger national retailer, adopting
electronic trading without pain or major capital outlays," said Tom Varghese,
product manager at GXS. "The benefits Maclean's has enjoyed through IWF are
immediate and tangible in the form of increased on-shelf availability, less
time wasted physically checking stores for products, greater efficiency and
growth in sales and revenue."
Established 30 years ago, Maclean's is a family-owned and run bakery based
in Forres, Scotland with 100 employees. The company has 2,500 products in nine
product lines. In addition to Tesco, the company produces biscuits for private
labels and has four of its own shops. The company is well-known for the high
quality of its products -- for example, its rolls are left to stand for 12
hours before baking as this significantly improves the flavour. Maclean's is
one of the few companies in Scotland to have achieved BRC (British Retail
Consortium) certification, which provides uniform standards for the safe
production of food.
About GXS
GXS is a leading global provider of B2B e-commerce solutions that simplify
and enhance business process integration and collaboration among trading
partners. Organizations worldwide, including more than 70 percent of the
Fortune 500, leverage the on-demand services on GXS Trading Grid(R) to extend
supply chain networks, optimize product launches, automate warehouse
receiving, manage electronic payments and gain supply chain visibility. GXS
Managed Services, GXS' B2B outsourcing solution, empowers customers with the
expertise, technical infrastructure and program support to conduct B2B
e-commerce with trading partners globally.
Based in Gaithersburg, Md., GXS has an extensive global network and has
local offices in the Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific regions. GXS can be
found on the Web at www.gxs.com.
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SOURCE GXS
