Independently owned Harrogate Water Brands, has recently invested £8m in a state-of-the-art production facility, to cater to the growing consumer demand for naturally sourced bottled water. The North Yorkshire based company produces Harrogate Spring, the Original British Bottled Water, as well as charity water brand, Thirsty Planet. The new showpiece bottling line will quadruple their business output. The company’s expansion and continuing growth plans have resulted in a subsequent overhaul of their business processes, with the decision to invest in a complete systems solution in partnership with Access Group.
Steve Burnett, finance director for Harrogate Spring Water, explains: “Our current system was at capacity. The business is continuing to perform ahead of the market, presenting an immediate requirement for a solution that can accommodate the increased demands. We went through a very thorough selection process to find a suitable supplier; we approached many different vendors, assessing their credibility, capability and scalability.
“We are confident Access will provide greater control, visibility and efficiency. Ultimately, it will future-proof our position to allow for continued growth.”
He continues: “We understood that to remain successful we needed to grow our business without becoming more labour intensive. We previously relied on a basic accounting software solution and a series of spreadsheets to manage our entire operation. We knew that streamlining and becoming more efficient was key to our future success. As a result we needed to have more straight-through, integrated processes.
“We have a huge amount of data which we have not been able to fully utilise. Our goal with Access is to harness this data and use it to support our growth plans. We’ve invested in Access’ MRP, advanced planning and scheduling (APS), CRM, business intelligence and document management solutions.”
Steve explains the importance of having a powerful solution to free up staff time: “We’re not a big team, we have seven staff split between, supply chain, finance and customer service. Our people are a precious asset and as we grow we need to empower them more and align their activities with our corporate goals and values. Having business intelligence at our finger tips will be incredibly helpful in achieving this.
“The MRP and planning aspects of supply chain are where we expect to enjoy the biggest benefit. The current system cannot support the increased demands of production planning. Through utilising Access, our team will have more time to develop relationships and strategic focus.”
Steve continues to outline the core benefits of implementing Access’ cloud-based solutions: “Having a dedicated CRM will enable us to maintain our customer relationships anywhere, anytime. Business intelligence will be used to tailor dashboards to senior staff’s needs, giving them complete oversight of the company.”
He concludes: “What made Access stand out was their partnership approach; it was clear not only did they want our business, but they wanted to help make a real difference to our operation. They listened, adapted and delivered to the standard we needed to support our growth targets. On top of this, they provided a competent, functional and flexible system that was easy to use.”
