NetSuite Supports the yfood® Multichannel Strategy
yfood® Reaches Customers Online and Offline
The Munich start-up company yfood Labs GmbH is one of the fastest growing food tech start-ups in Europe. Known from the TV show, “Die Höhle der Löwen” (Shark Tank), the company offers foodstuffs in the form of drinks, candy bars, and powders as healthy, ready-made meals. After yfood® tripled its turnover in 2020, turnover more than doubled last year. More than 500,000 customers currently order yfood® products online. yfood® follows a successful, multichannel sales model: The liquid meals are available for purchase at more than 20,000 major supermarket chain stores. Both sales channels contribute equally toward turnover and both continue to grow. Only a few consumer brands are successful at that.
Switches for the Future
From the onset, yfood® relied on IT support to run its processes. Initially, the orders could be reliably processed only using shopify. Later, Xentral was added as the first ERP system. But expansion and company growth entail new challenges and problems. That is why, in summer 2020, yfood® started a new software selection process, initially, to introduce an accounting system. The goods management and logistics processes were to follow. For online sales, connecting various online shops and logistics service providers (3PL) was another important requirement of the future system.
Desire for Standard Software with Flexibility
yfood® places value on the new ERP system covering the main requirements as a standard. Customizations should be largely avoided. Oracle NetSuite, a flexible solution that grows with the company and offers the ERP features in the cloud, was chosen. In addition to mapping yfood’s core business processes, NetSuite offers the option of quickly and easily integrating more than 20 e-commerce applications using the existing CELIGO interface. This allows for data to be exchanged with logistics service providers and makes product distribution across all conventional online shops easier.
NetSuite @yfood®
In order to map the business processes, the Oracle NetSuite modules
- Financials,
- Procurement,
- Advanced Inventory,
- Order Management und
- Fixed Assets Management
were introduced at yfood® in a first step.
With the help of the CELIGO Integrator IO, yfood® now processes its e-commerce activities via Shopify and Amazon and has a stable connection to external service providers for fulfillment and logistics.
On Course of Expansion
Today, the company sells its products online and in retail stores in more than 30 European countries. Further markets, including the USA, are slated to follow. To support the processes and procedures in other countries, international NetSuite rollouts are being planned.
Further 3PL service providers will also be connected and additional NetSuite features will be added. Thus, “Cash360” will be introduced in order to make cash flow prognoses easier in the future and allow for a real-time view of the cash flow. An expansion to include various operative planning functions like material requirements planning and demand planning is already in the works.
A rapidly growing business model like that of yfood® demands a high degree of flexibility, including during the ERP introduction phase. The challenges that arise during the course of the project were successfully overcome, not lastly, due to the use of an agile framework for the planning, management, and execution of the project. With the scalable and flexible NetSuite ERP Cloud solution, yfood chose a professional software solution to continuously improve processes in the future as well.
Über Yfood
yfood is the market leader in the smart food category in Germany. Since the founding of yfood Labs GmbH in Munich in 2017, Ben Kramer and Noel Bollmann have been revolutionising the food industry with their products. Innovative "complete food" in the form of drinks, bars and powders represents a new way of nutrition tha perfectly fits today's modern lifestyle: All yfood products are balanced, fully mobile (drink) meals and thus combine fast-living and conscious nutrition. The special feature here is the "Complete Nutrition" approach pursued by yfood. It means that the products contain all the essential micro- and macronutrients that the body needs - without compromising on taste. The company also focuses on sustainability. yfood takes care to use resources responsibility and has been a climate-neutral company since 2021. The products are currently sold in more than 30 European markets, including England, France and the Netherlands. Further information at www.yfood.eu.
Photo Credits: The photos were made available with the friendly support of yfood Labs GmbH.