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Natural products companies manage healthy business growth with NetSuite

NetSuite Cloud Powers Efficiency, Agility and Seamless Omnichannel Experience in the Fast-Growing Industry

SAN MATEO, Calif.—March 7, 2014—NetSuite Inc. (NYSE: N), the industry's leading provider of cloud-based financials / ERP and omnichannel commerce software suites, today announced new customer wins and continued strong momentum in the fast-growing natural products industry. Companies such as Navitas Naturals, Organic Spices Inc. and PACT Apparel are leveraging NetSuite to power their financials, supply chain, order management and inventory management, while companies like Eco-Bags Products and Evolving Nutrition are using NetSuite SuiteCommerce to power end-to-end omnichannel commerce that seamlessly connects ecommerce to order management, inventory, merchandising, marketing, financials and customer service. NetSuite is providing these customers—and others in the natural products industry—the business agility to rapidly launch new product lines and expand into new markets and sales channels, while reducing IT costs and providing a seamless customer experience.

The healthy and growing market for natural products presents business growth opportunities for wholesale distributors and manufacturers, but comes with a set of challenges for companies that have traditionally been reliant on a hairball of disparate software systems creating inefficiencies that stifle business growth and innovation. For these businesses, NetSuite has delivered real-time visibility into critical information with a unified data set covering financials, inventory management, order management, warehouse management, procurement, manufacturing and assembly, and omnichannel sales through the NetSuite SuiteCommerce platform. NetSuite natural product customers have gained the speed and agility they need to compete against larger, more established rivals and succeed in this highly competitive industry.

NetSuite will join more than 60,000 industry professionals attending the Natural Products Expo West trade show on March 7–9 in Anaheim, Calif.

NetSuite is helping natural products companies increase performance and profitability by:

  • Improving supply chain operations with integrated inventory and order management, and building demand forecasts with real-time data, reducing excess inventory or the risk of stockouts.
  • Allowing data to flow seamlessly to wholesale distributors and their trading partners, to ensure communication is in lockstep with the same data, audit trails and real-time accuracy at every stage with the help of complementary solutions from NetSuite partners for electronic data interchange.
  • Sharing container, pallet, location, forecasting, scheduling and unit-level data with stakeholders, while collaborating on a common cloud platform.
  • Providing mobile personnel and field sales with anywhere, anytime access to business data, improving sales effectiveness and customer service.
  • Strengthening compliance with U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other regulations through lot and serial number tracking capabilities, helping to document the full lifecycle of natural products.

Customers using NetSuite to transform their business operations include Navitas Naturals, Organic Spices, PACT Apparel, Eco-Bags Products and Evolving Nutrition.

Navitas Naturals "The Superfood Company," (www.navitasnaturals.com), a manufacturer and distributor of organic superfoods that increase energy and enhance health, upgraded from QuickBooks to NetSuite in April 2013 to handle large increases in orders, customers and internal users. With a 50 percent revenue increase in 2013, Navitas Naturals is poised for more double-digit growth in 2014 with sales to distributors and more than 5,000 retailers, including Whole Foods, Wegmans and Amazon, and a smaller portion directly to consumers. NetSuite lot tracking capabilities enable Navitas Naturals to track about 235 SKUs of raw materials and finished goods, while Navitas Naturals uses NetSuite's manufacturing capabilities for assembling raw materials sourced directly from farmers into Navitas Naturals-branded products at its facility in Novato, Calif. Navitas Naturals uses OzLINK shipping software from NetSuite partner Oz Development to streamline fulfilment of about 20,000 units a day, and SPS Commerce for EDI, Concur for expense reporting and Upaya for scripting and order processing. With NetSuite, Navitas Naturals has eliminated the speed and scalability limitations of QuickBooks while gaining an integrated real-time solution for greater efficiency and visibility. "The data we're able to capture with NetSuite is extremely robust, and we have great flexibility to customise reports," said Ira Haber, Navitas Naturals COO. "The dependability, speed, responsiveness and flexibility of NetSuite is enabling us to run the business more efficiently and gives us the scalability to grow."

Organic Spices Inc. (www.organicspices.com), DBA Spicely Organics (www.spicely.com), an importer, manufacturer and distributor of hundreds of quality natural organic herbs, spices, seasoning blends, organic teas and organic chocolates, has grown its business around an average of 50 percent a year since upgrading from QuickBooks to NetSuite in 2007. The 50-plus person company, based in Fremont, Calif., has gained transparency across its business with NetSuite supporting key functions such as financials, inventory, packaging and distribution. Maker of the Spicely organics brand, Organic Spices has also grown its business across more than 500 retail locations such as Whole Foods, Albertsons, Kroger and many others. Organic Spices has also grown its wholesale channel, distributing product to leading food industry manufacturers. NetSuite's manufacturing capabilities support custom packaging at the company warehouse, while lot tracking helps ensure compliance with FDA and other regulations, replacing what had been a time-consuming manual process. NetSuite purchasing and inventory capabilities help Organic Spices manage the lifecycle of more than 800 SKUs, with many products imported from across the world. "We give NetSuite an A+," said Clara Bonner, Organic Spices Marketing Manager. "The fact that with all the complexities of the company, one software solution supports so many functions has been phenomenal. I don't think we could have grown as efficiently without NetSuite."

PACT Apparel (www.wearpact.com), a certified B Corporation that produces organic cotton underwear, socks and tops using principles of social and environmental responsibility, grew its revenue 300 percent in 2013 after implementing NetSuite in December 2012 to replace QuickBooks and a web-based order management system. A subsidiary of Revelry Brands, an equity firm focused on eco-sustainable businesses in natural foods and consumer products, PACT has gained business agility to expand its B2B distribution channel across nearly 1,000 retail locations, including Whole Foods, Nordstrom and Amazon, with an EDI solution from NetSuite partner B2B Gateway in place for business with larger retailers. The efficiencies that PACT has achieved have helped the NetSuite.org grantee commit more resources to such initiatives as "seed to shelf" sourcing, helping ensure responsible practices at cotton fields and manufacturing partners in India, Turkey and elsewhere, using NetSuite to document organic certifications. Building on its success, the Boulder, Colo.-based PACT plans to implement NetSuite Demand Planning and leverage NetSuite CRM capabilities in early 2014. "NetSuite has enabled us to achieve and manage our rapid growth," said Scott Desserault, PACT VP of Operations. "Our transaction volumes have increased significantly and with NetSuite we've been able to handle it without adding staff. If we didn't have NetSuite, managing our rapid growth would have been challenging."

NetSuite SuiteCommerce is helping natural products companies such as Eco-Bags Products and Evolving Nutrition enhance the omnichannel experience by:

  • Providing a real-time, 360-degree view of the business by seamlessly integrating financials / ERP, CRM and ecommerce, thereby empowering businesses to manage their interactions directly with consumers, other businesses and trading partners.
  • Managing all transactions and associated customer interactions regardless of touchpoint.
  • Expanding direct-to-consumer sales while also offering wholesale customers a convenient online B2B purchasing channel.

Their success story details:

Eco-Bags Products (www.ecobags.com), a pioneer in the reusable bag market that produces the ECOBAGS brand of environmentally responsible bags, has grown exponentially since implementing NetSuite in 2004 to upgrade from QuickBooks and eliminate incompatibility problems between QuickBooks and a mail order manager application used by a fulfilment partner. With NetSuite handling financials and inventory, Eco-Bags Products, based in Ossining, N.Y., also runs NetSuite SuiteCommerce for ecommerce sales both for direct to consumers and for B2B retail customers including Walgreen's, Whole Foods and Nordic Naturals. As a NetSuite.org grantee, the certified B Corporation has scaled its custom work business, supplying both custom cuts and graphics for customers such as Williams-Sonoma, Pepsi, Staples and others. NetSuite's multi-location inventory management streamlines operations across four warehouses, while Eco-Bags Products has expanded sales across more than a dozen countries in Europe and Asia and avoided the cost and complexity of on-premise systems for its growing business. "NetSuite has enabled us to run extremely efficiently so we can focus on customers and grow the business," said Sharon Rowe, Eco-Bags Products CEO. "We needed integration and wanted it all in one package that we could use from wherever we are in the world. Reporting with NetSuite is very robust so we're able to determine what the trends are and where to focus the business for the best returns."

Evolving Nutrition (www.evolvingnutrition.com), a family-owned distributor of pharmaceutical-grade nutraceuticals to licensed healthcare practitioners, has grown to nearly 2,000 customers in just two years after launching its business on NetSuite. Based in Mukilteo, Wash., the company relies on NetSuite's lot tracking capabilities for detailed information on inventory, shipments and expiration dates to help ensure FDA compliance and efficiently run operations. NetSuite SuiteCommerce gives Evolving Nutrition a web storefront to complement phone and direct sales, with a solution from NetSuite partner Merchant e-Solutions running credit card processing. NetSuite's CRM capabilities has been vital in helping drive sales effectiveness and double revenue year-over-year, while ERP streamlines procurement of more than 1,400 products from 28 suppliers with in-house fulfilment from a company warehouse. Selected over Sage Peachtree, NetSuite's cloud solution and iPhone app have been critical for a rapid business launch with anywhere, anytime data access, without the cost and complexity of in-house systems. "The transparency of NetSuite tells everybody what's going on and it does everything from tracking to processing our orders seamlessly," said Amanda Abbinanti, Evolving Nutrition Director of Business Development. "We can see where we are at the end of every day, and I can't tell you how valuable that is. Without NetSuite, we wouldn't have achieved nearly as much as we have."

"Strong consumer demand for natural and responsibly produced food and goods offers a wealth of opportunities for companies that can efficiently run their operations with a focus on quality and customer satisfaction," said Ranga Bodla, Senior Director, NetSuite Industry Marketing. "It's very gratifying to see our natural products customers achieve double- and triple-digit growth by running faster and smarter in the cloud and delivering products that are good for people and good for the planet."

NetSuite SuiteCommerce enables B2C and B2B merchants, manufacturers and distributors to seamlessly connect every step of a multi-channel, multi-location business—from ecommerce, POS and order management to merchandising, marketing, inventory, financials and customer support. Featuring an advanced webstore that allows the creation of uniquely branded and personalised shopping experiences optimised for multiple devices, SuiteCommerce empowers businesses to run across multiple touchpoints—web, brick-and-mortar stores, social, mobile—all from a single, unified cloud-based commerce system that provides unprecedented visibility into your business and customers.

Today, more than 20,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex, mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading provider of enterprise-class cloud financials/ERP suites for divisions of large enterprises and mid-sized organisations seeking to upgrade their antiquated client/server ERP systems. NetSuite excels at streamlining business operations as demonstrated in a recent Gartner study naming NetSuite as the fastest growing financial management software vendor on a global basis. NetSuite continues its success in delivering the best cloud ERP/financials suites to businesses around the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud is accelerating.

 

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