Goodman Fielder brings SAP to Baking

Final A/NZ business unit to get NexGen IT overhaul.

Goodman Fielder has started phase one of a major enterprise resource planning overhaul at its baking division in Australia and New Zealand.

The baking division, which includes bread brands such as Mighty Soft, Helga's and Wonder White, is the last business division in A/NZ to move onto the SAP ERP platform.

The SAP rollout, code-named NexGen, is seen as a "key element of the company's progression to a single IT platform supported by a shared services function", according to recent investor day presentation notes.

NexGen is already in place at Goodman Fielder's other three A/NZ divisions: Integro Foods (which has brands such as Praise, Crisco, White Wings and Pampas), Home Ingredients (NZ maker of oils and spreads) and NZ Dairy & Meats.

Dairy & Meats is the most recent division to see the NexGen platform go live.

Goodman Fielder is now focused on the A/NZ baking overhaul, which is due to be completed by mid-2013.

The first phase "covers administration and back end processes such as general ledger, accounts payable, procurement, inventory management and manufacturing," a Goodman Fielder spokesman told iTnews.

The company has implemented phase one of the system at baking sites in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the Northern Territory, and at corporate headquarters in NSW.

Phase one will be extended to other Australian baking sites by mid-2012 and to the New Zealand baking division sites in the second half of the same year.

Once finished, a second phase is set to be implemented that covers customer-facing functions "such as pricing and trade terms, delivery processes, delivery hand held interfaces, invoicing and accounts receivable and customer order management."

Phase two is to be rolled out sometime between late-2012 and the middle of the following year, the spokesman said.

Come mid-2013, Goodman Fielder's entire Asia Pacific business - minus its Pacific business units - will run on a single SAP ERP system.

"It is not anticipated to put our Pacific business units onto SAP in the near term," the spokesman said.

The mid-2013 completion date is slightly later than first anticipated because the project was "adversely impacted" by February's earthquake in Christchurch.

Goodman Fielder's directors said in the company's preliminary final report this year that delays caused by the quake had seen the project completion pushed back from "early" to "mid" 2013.