Eustralis achieves a double digit reduction in inventory in 12 months

Before implementing Netstock

Eustralis used separate spreadsheets in each of its five branches and data from its DEAR Systems ERP to determine forecasts and place container orders. “Working in this siloed manner made it impossible for anyone else besides the “owner” of the spreadsheet to work on it. If that person was unavailable, we had a problem,” explains Etienne Decuyper, Supply Chain Manager at Eustralis.

Each branch would prepare a weekly stock report showing the stock on hand, excess stock, stock-outs, and discontinued products. To get these figures, they had to export data from DEAR Systems, and then by using the VLOOKUP method, pivot tables, and macros, they could get their results. Elerig and Etienne, respectively, the General Manager and Supply Chain Manager in Queensland, were appointed as the leaders of the Netstock project following the internal audit at Eustralis.

Inventory challenges

1. Lack of visibility

Eustralis needed more visibility into its inventory data. They knew they might be short on certain items but didn’t have exact data to qualify or quantify. “Now that we have the data, we can be more proactive than reactive. For example, the data shows us where there is a potential stock-out, and we can alert our customers, allowing them to change their menus timeously if needed. Keeping our customers informed has increased customer satisfaction tenfold,” continues Etienne.

2. Supply chain disruptions

COVID-19 took its toll on Eustralis. There were a lot of frustrations across the different departments, particularly the purchasing and sales departments. Lead times doubled, and manufacturers stopped producing some lines and replaced others. Eustralis either had insufficient stock on specific items or too much on others. “Back then, when certain product lines were discontinued, we didn’t have the ability, as we do now, to create a supersession and link the ‘like for like’ replacement product to the sales and forecast data of the discontinued product.”

3. Holding excess stock

Eustralis was also experiencing excess stock. “Although they were fast-moving items, there were still way too many. This problem had a ripple effect on many departments, and the warehouse staff battled as it was taking up unnecessary space in the warehouse and making it difficult to work. The dispatch teams couldn’t navigate the warehouse, as boxes and pallets were everywhere! The sales teams had to create special offers to try and sell this excess stock as the “best before” dates were fast approaching. At that time, Eustralis focused more on the past few months of sales for their replenishment rather than looking at future forecasts of future sales.

The problem was that it took so long to work with the Excel tables and determine the container orders that Eustralis would place multiple container orders simultaneously. Now, they adhere to the order recommendations that Netstock provides and only order what they need.

Why Netstock

Eustralis conducted a comprehensive evaluation of both plug-and-play and customized solutions. Elerig concluded that plug-and-play functionality represented a more cost-effective and faster implementation choice and selected Netstock as their preferred solution.

“Netstock listens to their customers and to market trends and continually adds functionality that allows us smaller distributors to compete with our larger competitors. What sealed my decision was when I discovered how many large retailers and distributors were using Netstock. Those larger companies all have the same problems that we have, except on a larger scale, so if Netstock works for them, it will most certainly work for us,” continues Elerig.

ROI

Eustralis were quickly running low on their industrial freezer space and were getting quotes from builders to add more freezers. From January 2023 to July 2023, they reduced their inventory. Meaning they no longer had to lay out massive capital on extra freezer space and, in fact, have turned off one of their freezers and removed some extra external storage they were using.

In addition, they have increased their sales and maintained their 97% fill rate.

Besides the financial ROI from investing in Netstock, there’s been an immense amount of time savings. What used to take each branch a day or two now takes an hour. “For me personally, I used to work full time on the purchasing for our Queensland branch. Now, I’m purchasing for Queensland and South Australia, and I’ve been managing the Netstock project over the last year. Saving this time results from having accurate information that I can use to communicate with my sales team,” says Etienne.

Unexpected benefits

We found that implementing Netstock improved their staff’s analytical skills. For example, staff in their purchasing departments went from spending most of their time formatting Excel spreadsheets to analyzing data and making informed and data-driven decisions based on their analysis.

Change management

“What was evident when we looked at Netstock was that supply chain specialists developed it. And even though it made perfect sense for us to choose Netstock, we still needed to convince our team that this new system would enable them to become more proficient and elevate them in their roles as inventory planners,” says Elerig.

Onboarding and training

Eustralis implemented a data governance management plan, and Etienne was appointed the national data governance manager. In each branch, they selected a data steward that attended to the data cleanup before the start of the integration. One person taking ownership in each location was a real game changer for Etienne. “Each branch has its ERP that is not connected, so we needed to integrate five different databases into Netstock. It was imperative that all our location’s data was clean. If one item doesn’t have the same code and information in each location, it would be a big problem.”

What’s next for Eustralis?

“Over the past 24 months, we successfully onboarded Netstock, marking the beginning of a new chapter. Eustralis is committed to continuous improvement and will now audit its Netstock implementation to identify further enhancements. We have chosen the Bronze package, and Netstock will start auditing our business and making recommendations. Staying ahead in inventory management is crucial for us to remain competitive,” says Frederic Bardinet, owner of Eustralis Group.