Aspera wins €225k ERP contract with La Rousse Foods

22 Feb 2010

Irish enterprise software company Aspera has won a €225,000 contract over three years to supply an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to La Rousse Foods.

The system will transform all areas of its business processes and bring operations management, productivity and customer service advantages. The system is being rolled out and the implementation is due to be completed in May.

About La Rousse Foods

La Rousse Foods is a speciality food sales and distribution business that was originally established in 1991 by husband-and-wife team Mary Massy and Marc Amand. Both former chefs, they have grown the company to cater for the 32 counties of Ireland.

La Rousse Foods spans three Irish sales, administration and distribution centres, plus a French centre. It employs more than 80 people supplying more than 2,500 products to the hospitality sector, including restaurants, delicatessens and other retail outlets.

Growth of its expansive product range and customer base has created a complex operations environment which had evolved to be labour intensive due to the sheer volume of transactions. Its primary goal was to simplify and streamline its business so that it can deliver high-quality fresh goods and the best customer service. 

What Ross ERP software can do for La Rousse Foods

The platform, Ross ERP software, will impact on every aspect of La Rousse Foods’ operations.

This includes its core activities, such as cheese ripening, butchery, wines, warehousing and transport, as well customer service, sales, finance, purchasing, stock management, traceability and quality management.

The Ross ERP software will also provide the management team with key business intelligence information as La Rousse Foods continues to grow.

The ERP solution caters to the four sites, home offices and mobile sales staff.  It can track every barcode-scanned product, all the way from producer to customer, and back if needed. It ensures that stock quality is optimised and enables La Rousse Foods to better manage risk, regulatory and financial reporting. CRM facilities allow sales people to get detailed integrated customer records and reports so they can better respond to needs.

“Aspera’s deep experience of the food sector in Ireland and the UK reassured us that they inherently understood our business,” Tristan Geoghegan, finance manager at La Rousse Foods explained.

“They grasped the real potential of Ross ERP for our business and convinced us of their ability to maximise the return on this investment. Ross ERP is the benchmark for the food sector and was the outstanding platform choice.

“This will make positive impact on our stock and order management and ensure that we reduce stock wastage to as close to zero as possible. We also expect to achieve a 4-5pc improvement in our key customer service index.”

By John Kennedy

Photo: Tristan Geoghegan (left), finance manager, La Rousse Foods, and Lonan Byrne, managing director, Aspera Solutions

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com