Putting Fresh First Since 1983.
In 1983, the Westrow Food Group got its start selling fresh salads in the city of Vancouver. Building on this early success, in 1986 it expanded to include a popular line of Mexican foods. In 2005, Westrow purchased a reputable produce brokerage to expand its product offering. Since then, Westrow’s client base has grown as has the company’s product portfolio which now encompasses a broad range of products typically found in a grocery store’s perimeter aisles: fresh meat, seafood, deli, bakery and fresh produce.
Management Decision…
Westrow Food Group’s growth triggered a management decision in 2009 to centralize all administrative functions necessitating a significant change to their operating systems. Wrestling with moving data between various business components – and the potential for error when doing so – was costing the staff of their Account Receivable, Accounts Payable, Purchasing, and Brokerage functions a significant amount of time that could better spent in managing the business. It was around that time that Westrow management met WaudWare president, F. Charles Waud at a CPMA event. After discussing and exploring all of Westrow’s operational/business challenges, it was agreed that WaudWare would design a new Brokerage Module for Produce Inventory Control System (PICS) software that would efficiently handle all of Westrow Food Group’s needs within AR, AP, Purchasing, and of course Sales Brokerage, where it all began.
Today…
Westrow employs 59 people across Canada. There are now a total of 9 PICS users in Accounts Receivable, Accounts Payable, Purchasing and the Brokerage areas of the business. With PICS deployed, Westrow is capable of processing significantly higher volumes of transactions than in 2009. The amount of time spent per transaction or dealing with input errors has decreased and Westrow’s management are increasingly able to ask different, more strategic questions of their business. The level of support received from WaudWare has been exceptional, especially when you factor in the time change between offices in Ontario (WaudWare) and British Columbia (Westrow).
