How Horizon Beverage Met Business Goals & Supports a Growing Team
Horizon Beverage, a leading New England alcohol distributor with a 775-person team, replaced its outdated replenishment system with HIMPACT®, a more functional and user-friendly inventory management solution recommended by trusted expert Carl Herlitz, resulting in improved efficiency, better support, and enhanced ability to meet business goals through features like daily history exceptions that help the buying team quickly respond to sales fluctuations.
In the heart of New England, Horizon Beverage excels as a premier alcohol distributor, uniting makers, retailers, and craft enthusiasts. With four generations at the helm, its dedicated team of 775 people serves both Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
The Need
The Horizon Beverage team is always on the lookout for cutting-edge solutions. It recognized its current replenishment solution was underperforming and was no longer able to receive upgrades. Support was also lacking from the provider, which left the company with additional efficiency challenges. Horizon Beverage turned to HIMPACT® for help. Upon meeting with the HIMPACT team and reviewing its inventory management system, Horizon Beverage grew confident that it would meet its replenishment needs.
David Silva, Vice President of Purchasing & Logistics for Horizon Beverage stated:
We were familiar with Carl Herlitz from his work on another replenishment system. We trusted his extensive knowledge of the concepts and were confident that he would be the right partner. Once we saw the possibilities of HIMPACT improving our business, we knew it had much more functionality compared to other vendors. We also found it to be more user-friendly.
"Once we saw what HIMPACT was capable of, we knew it had much more functionality compared to other vendors."
— David Silva, Vice President of Purchasing & Logistics, Horizon Beverage
The Result
The Horizon Beverage leadership has been pleased with how HIMPACT has performed for its buying team. “Since the beginning of our partnership, we have felt that Carl and his team understood the deep intricacies of our business and our industry,” commented Silva.
Packed with features that buyers need, HIMPACT has helped Horizon Beverage hit several business goals. “The daily history exceptions feature in HIMPACT is very helpful because it enables us to quickly see when sales vary from the level we expected, allowing us to pivot accordingly,” added Silva. He continued, “We also like the truck split and sub-vendors features, as well as the ability to easily measure service levels. HIMPACT also makes it very simple to change and rebuild orders, which saves us time.”
In 2020, most industries were negatively impacted by the pandemic. Despite the disruptions, Horizon’s buyers were able to maintain healthy service levels by leveraging the power of HIMPACT. “More recently, we have also utilized the system to significantly reduce inventory levels,” commented Silva. Horizon Beverage has also enjoyed the ongoing support that the Herlitz team delivers. Silva mentioned, “The Herlitz team is very easy to work with. They respond quickly to questions and challenges. Help is handled by a team of experts that know our business and our buyers.”
The BFC Difference
BFC Software is a food-focused solutions platform—from forecasting and warehouse operations to the final mile. Designed to evolve with industry demands, BFC helps customers stay ahead with data-driven insights that boost efficiency, improve performance, and optimize operations.
Related
Improving Fill Rates While Streamlining Inventory: Pet Food Expert’s Journey
Pet Food Experts, a leading U.S. pet food distributor with nearly 30 years in the industry, significantly improved its inventory management and fill rates by implementing the HIMPACT® forecasting and purchasing software, which proved crucial during its acquisition of United Pacific Pet and organic growth, resulting in 5–10% inventory reductions and 2–5 percentage point increases in fill rates, earning high praise from company leadership for its ROI and seamless vendor integration.
How Génere Food Corp. Reduced Inventory by 49% | BFC Software
Génere Food Corp., a wholesale grocer serving over 600 customers in New England, implemented HIMPACT® software to improve inventory efficiency, resulting in a 16% inventory reduction that freed warehouse space to buy directly from manufacturers, increased customer service by over 6%, and achieved an effective 49% overall inventory reduction while enabling the owner to maintain direct control over purchasing despite rapid company growth.
Improving Sales: URM Store’s Journey
URM Stores, a large cooperative serving over 1,000 supermarkets with extensive SKUs and seasonal items, implemented HIMPACT’s forecasting and inventory solution to reduce manual workload and spoilage, resulting in a seamless rollout, a 20% sales increase, maintained inventory levels despite customer growth, and over 98% fill-rate during new customer onboarding.
How Imperial Distributors Improved Forecasting to Reduce Safety Stock
Imperial Distributors improved their inventory management by implementing the HIMPACT purchasing system, which uses daily, customer order-based forecasts that react quickly to changes, enabling them to reduce safety stock, increase inventory turnover, maintain service levels, and provide a user-friendly experience for their procurement team.
How Chex Finer Foods Beat Their Customer Service Goals By 2%
Chex Finer Foods, a longstanding specialty food distributor, faced challenges meeting a new customer service goal of 92% after hiring new buyers and acquiring a major account, but by partnering with BFC’s HIMPACT team for targeted training and ongoing monitoring of their inventory management system, they successfully improved buyer performance and exceeded their customer service commitment by 2%.
BFC Software Acquires Herlitz Inventory Management to Expand Food Industry Logistics Services
BFC Software has acquired Herlitz Inventory Management to create a unified, purpose-built operations platform that combines BFC’s warehouse management expertise with Herlitz’s demand forecasting and replenishment software, aiming to enhance food distributors’ efficiency, profitability, and service levels by improving demand forecasting, inventory management, and coordination between buying and warehousing in the perishables sector.