Brouwerij De Brabandere: Getting ready for international growth
Brouwerij De Brabandere doubled its turnover and saw a potential for international growth but were held back by old systems. Today De Brabandere is fully prepared to unleash its full international potential.
Brouwerij De Brabandere produces 20 million litres of beers and soft drinks a year, which are mainly distributed in the Belgian and French markets. In addition, the brewery runs an extensive estate of approximately 300 licensed outlets.
Next stop for growth: The international market
Like many other breweries Brouwerij De Brabandere realized that setting out to expand internationally involved considering a new set of challenges. However, their old software applications were slowing down their growth. To get ready to reach new business opportunities and potentially boost profits, they looked for a way to align their organisation and processes with the complexity of international growth.
A key capability of a successful international brewery is having streamlined production facilities in place that can easily scale and enable cost-effective and fast beer production. Furthermore, it is key to be able to navigate the laws and regulations governing target markets. Tax compliance is crucial. Mitigating the risks of different tax systems, rates and compliance requirements across various markets is key to maximizing revenue – but it is also highly challenging.
Unleashing the full international potential with IT
Hiring more people wouldn’t have solved De Brabandere’s challenges. Instead, the brewery responded to the complexities by choosing a path where intelligent technology played a huge role. By replacing an outdated, bespoke IT system with a modern brewery management solution, they have transformed themselves into a brewery that is more ready than ever to do international business.
“We had doubled our sales, and saw a potential for more. The new solution is vital for our international success,” says Yves Goessaert, CFO, Brouwerij De Brabandere.
Bringing operational excellence into international growth
By investing in a brewery management solution De Brabandere has brought operational excellence and flexible best practice processes into their international growth, reducing complexity and boosting efficiency across their production, finance and tax management, warehouse and distribution, service, reporting, contracts and sales. The process tools and flows can easily be changed as Brouwerij De Brabandere grows.
In addition, De Brabandere has access to reporting tools that enables them to analyse purchase, sales and stock data and gain new insights that improve the management of their entire value chain. Furthermore, the brewery can handle deposits and monitor the return of empty kegs better, thereby controlling costs more easily. Strict debtor management helps them increase profitability and liquidity.
About Brouwerij De Brabandere
Brouwerij De Brabandere produces and markets an extensive range of pilsner and special beers as well as running an estate of around 300 licensed outlets. During a period of stagnating beer consumption, De Brabandere brewery has continued to grow.
10 success stories from leading breweries
The story of Brouwerij De Brabandere is only one of 10 success stories on how leading breweries have overcome a wide variety of different business challenges by means of technology. We have collected these stories in a casebook called "10 success stories from leading breweries - Learn how your peers made beverage a better business with IT".
