A 120-year-old manufacturer of paper cups has announced enterprise applications company IFS as its new ERP solution provider to capitalise on potential growth.
Benders Paper Cups, which started manufacturing in Wrexham in 1894, has chosen IFS’ Applications 8 software in a move to reinvent its technological capabilities, after a tender process which also saw competition from SAP and Infor.
After coming under new ownership, Europe’s only dedicated paper cup manufacturer has moved to replace its existing IT system with IFS to improve business efficiency and upgrade manufacturing machinery.
The deployment is due to go live this December with a soltuon for manufacturing, supply chain and finance, which will give the company a ready-made IT infrastructure for equipment upgrades to allow its finance team to process direct debit transactions.
With a total workforce of 125, Benders is also implementing IFS mobility including touch app authorisation and mobile warehouse transactions.
Mark de Meza, financial director at Benders Paper Cups, said the move was partly influenced by the expansion of the hot drinks market in the UK.
“The hot drinks market in the UK has exploded over the past few years – not just with a Starbucks on every corner but with hundreds of independent coffee shops, too. As the only dedicated paper cup manufacturing business in Europe, and making all our cups in the UK, we supply a huge number of these outlets,” he said.
Mr de Meza added there was little hope of the company expanding without a complete overhaul of its “archaic” IT system.
“There is a big opportunity for us to sell more cups both in the UK and on the continent, but we had little hope of doing that with an archaic IT system that hadn’t been updated for over a decade.
“We want to double the size of the business and the IFS Applications implementation is the foundation from which we will build.”
Paul Massey, managing director of IFS Europe West, added: “We’re helping bring a company with a very old IT infrastructure into the present day – they’ve gone from spreadsheets and paper to a fully integrated ERP system with mobile apps for employees.
“IFS Applications will ensure the entire business will run more smoothly, with significant focus on empowering employees to work smarter and improving efficiencies.”
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