BrewDog to implement craft brewery software from Sapphire

BrewDogOne of the UK’s best-known craft breweries, BrewDog, is set to implement OrchestratedBEER, the all-in-one brewery management solution from Sapphire Systems.

In the face of rapid company expansion, BrewDog’s Operations Director, Martin Dempster, identified the need to implement more sophisticated software to improve processes and future-proof the business.

“We have grown really quickly as a company over the past eight years, we’ve added a lot of people to the team and the flow of information and planning cycles are becoming more and more critical to the business. So in the face of that astronomical growth we’ve had to really assess our software requirements.

“We were familiar with the OrchestratedBEER product in the United States and knew it incorporated the industry specific functionality we needed, but implementation was a concern, as we thought it was risky to have this managed by an overseas team. Then we heard Sapphire had taken on the product in the UK so we explored this option further.

“To their credit, the Sapphire team were very reassuring, put together a good demo and were open about the implementation process, which eased any fears we had about being the first customer in the UK,” he said.

Martin said the fact OrchestratedBEER is designed specifically for the craft brewing industry was also a selling point.

“Some of the functionality we require would most likely be customisations in other platforms, where as many industry specific operations come off-the-shelf with OrchestratedBEER. It’s also very user driven; with the craft beer industry moving so quickly, it was really encouraging to know that functionality is driven by users who have a similar process and ethos to ourselves.”

Martin said there will be several key areas where he expects the software to have a significant positive impact.

“The first would be around planning and forecasting. Because we’re growing at around 70% each year we need tools to allow us to liaise with our sales team and understand the sales pipeline in order to drive production. Materials planning is also quite important as we need to plan ahead for hops, KeyKegs and other supplies we source from overseas with long lead-times. At the moment we also undertake a lot of manual data entry, so we are looking to automate a lot of these processes, and finally we need a really solid financial foundation for the business that will help us manage future growth,” he said.

Sapphire’s CEO, Ian Caswell, said the OrchestratedBEER solution was already proving an excellent addition to the company’s portfolio of solutions.

“It’s a unique offering designed to solve the specific challenges faced by craft breweries. BrewDog is a real success story in the industry, and we are pleased to welcome them as our first client for the product in the UK. We are confident the solution will help them simplify and streamline their operational processes in the face of continued growth,” he said.

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