Enterprise resource planning system takes family-run business to the next level
Moe Demyati’s family has been in the food business for more than 100 years—and he and his brothers, Ed and Jamil, are keeping up the tradition.
“Our grandfather and father were in the food business,” says Demyati, COO of Jenna Food Products. “So when we moved to Canada from Syria in 2014, we decided to grow our own food business here.”
Jenna Food Products imports and distributes Middle Eastern and international foods, selling everything from pre-cooked rice to pickles and frozen pastries. Its customers are big-box retailers, restaurants and specialty grocery stores across Canada.
Dealing with growing pains
Demyati and his brothers started out small, running their business out of a 1,000-square-foot (93 m2) building in Ottawa, Ontario. Today, they have an 18,000-square-foot (1,672 m2), state-of-the-art food distribution centre located just southeast of the city and are seeing their business grow “double digits year over year.”
Of course, growth always brings challenges.
The first hurdle was securing the financing they needed to expand the operation and build a larger distribution centre.
“It is not easy for a start-up or a company like ours to get the working capital you need to support the inventory, buy the equipment and build the building,” explains Demyati. “It requires a lot of support.”
But by paying close attention to their numbers and working with financial experts, they were able to secure financing for BDC and a chartered bank.
The second major challenge was tackling the company’s outdated IT systems and getting new ones in place to support the growth they were looking to achieve.
The conclusion was that we needed to invest in an ERP system to help our company grow and reach the forecasts for the future.
Moe Demyati
COO, Jenna Food Products
Investing in the right technology
A distribution business like Jenna Food Products has a lot of moving parts—from importing and inventory to bookkeeping and sales. So, when he and his brothers decided to expand, they knew they needed to make some changes.
Working with BDC experts, they completed an analysis of the company’s IT infrastructure and determined what technology they would need to support a bigger operation.
The company had been using a popular accounting software that caters to small businesses. But it couldn’t cope with the volume of transactions or help them manage an inventory of products with expiry dates.
“The conclusion was that we needed to invest in an ERP system to grow and reach our targets,” says Demyati. “You need a system that can help you visualize the numbers daily and manage the workflow and inventory efficiently.”
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is software that integrates all of a business’s data into a single system that manages everything from inventory to finances to human resources. But that was just the beginning.
You can get the best software, but if you don’t have the right team, you will not be successful. Because the know-how and implementation process is also significant.
Moe Demyati
COO, Jenna Food Products
Getting the right team
An ERP system changes the culture of a company and its workflow, says Demyati. That meant once they’d launched the system, they would need to train current staff on the technology and hire new staff who were tech-savvy.
“It’s not just the software,” he says. “You can get the best software, but if you don't have the right team, you will not be successful. Because the know-how and implementation process is also significant.”
But finding—and keeping—the right team took some effort.
In today’s competitive labour market, attracting and retaining staff can be challenging, and Demyati says it wasn’t easy to find workers with the computer skills he was looking for. But he says having an ERP system in place was a selling point.
“They were attracted by the fact that we had this system because they wanted to learn ERP software, especially young graduates,” he explains. “They understand that a company that has invested in such a system is going to provide them with excellent skills that can support their growth as employees.”
Demyati and his brothers have also worked hard to create a work culture that makes people want to stick around. The company provides health benefits, a gas allowance, and discounted prices on its products. They even offer a daily free lunch—which the entire team sits down and eats together.
If we are more efficient, we’re better able to control costs. So, we can do more with the same or similar overheads.
Moe Demyati
COO, Jenna Food Products
Providing benefits for the company and its customers
Although Demyati admits that implementing an ERP system has meant some “pain and challenges,” he says it’s already beginning to pay off. Less than a year in, the resulting efficiencies are already translating into a 20% to 30% reduction in the company’s operating costs.
And implementing the ERP hasn’t just improved the company’s bottom line. It will also benefit customers.
Many Canadians have been hard hit by inflation in recent years and the company has had to do more promotions to maintain its sales. They’ve also seen an increase in the sales of bulk value packs. As the price of food has risen, they’ve also chosen to maintain the prices of certain products by reducing the amount of food offered in the package.
Demyati believes their technology investments have allowed them to remain competitve in these hard times.
“If we are more efficient, we're better able to control costs. So, we can do much more with the same or similar overheads,” he explains. “I believe that will give us the opportunity to provide better prices.”
That’s good news for customers—and it will help Jenna Food Products build loyalty in today’s inflationary environment.