Singletons

Knowing the company
Lancashire-based Singleton's Dairy Ltd was officially established as a limited company in 1934 producing three cheeses a week. Although very successful, its cheese manufacturing licence was revoked during World War II; its milk supply was cut to zero and redirected to the forces. By the late 1950s the business was virtually bankrupt, but under local farmer Harry Riding, his wife Duillia Singleton and son Alan, Singleton's resumed cheese-making.

Today Tilly Carefoot, Harry Riding's granddaughter, manages Singleton's operations while her brother Bill manages production.

Singleton's now produces more than 2000 tons of cheese annually, employs 60 staff and exports 50 percent of its cheeses globally. Its UK customers include Morrison's, Sainsbury's and Tesco.

Defining the strategy
Singleton's had been using Sage for accounting, but as the company expanded this system could not support key elements of the business. Sage only provided a bottom-line turnover figure, so producing reports and analysis was a time-consuming and laborious process which diverted staff away from proactive sales activities.

Ms. Carefoot said, "Often it would take two staff two weeks of manually reviewing invoices to produce the business-critical information that Singleton's needed - and then it was unreliable."

She added, "Furthermore, at any time we could have £1 million of stock maturing. Manually managing the rotation of individual units led to high wastage and high losses. For instance, our speciality is mature Lancashire cheese, which takes 12 months to develop and we were laying down cheese with incomplete knowledge of what age profile we already held in stock."

Choosing the solution
Ms. Carefoot said, "Sage covered our basic accounting requirements but we realised we needed a solution that could support fundamental tasks such as stock
management and traceability."

After 14 months of research, Singleton's selected Torex to implement Torex ERP as the platform for their business.

"The Torex consultants spent considerable time getting to know the unique aspects of our business and industry. We originally set aside six months to a year to switch over to the new system but it was a lot smoother than I expected; one day we were using Sage and the next day we were using Torex ERP," commented Ms. Carefoot.

Achieving return on investment
In order to trade within its various markets full traceability from finished product back to raw material is imperative. Before Torex ERP, Singleton's could not meet this critical requirement. Now, with regular tests in place Singleton's is able to identify all customers who have purchased a specific batch of cheese even though it may have been packed into 15 different products.

"Supermarkets now insist on traceability and Torex ERP provides this crucial requirement. It's absolutely essential," said Ms. Carefoot.

Reporting
Singleton's is also benefiting from the reporting capabilities of Torex ERP.

Ms. Carefoot said, "The reporting capabilities of Torex ERP are fabulous - they are easy to run, easy to preview. At last my sales team has information that is actually worth something. We now have the knowledge with which to take action whereas
before Torex ERP we were on a wing and a prayer - and I prayed a lot!"

As with any company, longstanding employees sometimes do not readily accept change and Ms. Carefoot was apprehensive as to how easily they would adapt to the new system, but Singleton's employees have embraced Torex ERP as easy-to-use and intuitive.

Chief Warehouseman Colin Wells has been with Singleton's for 30 years and was initially a reluctant user but he recently confided that Torex ERP has been the best thing to have happened for his job.

"That, for me, makes it all worthwhile," said Ms. Carefoot.

Conclusion
Turnover at Singleton's has grown by an impressive 40 percent to £11 million since 2004 - while staffing levels have remained static. Torex ERP has been in place to support that growth and now provides the infrastructure to aid further expansion of the business.