Empowering Homegrown Brands to Succeed on the National Stage: Pampanga’s Best Success Story with SAP Business One

Many entrepreneurs dream of transforming their small local businesses into large corporations that lead their respective industries. Some even have their sights set on branching out of their home towns, cities, or provinces and expanding their operations to include the rest of the country.

But homegrown success isn’t very easy to replicate on a national level. For every expansion into a new territory, a business will have to contend with tedious operational requirements and stiff competition. It will soon become apparent to a business owner that the same strategies they used for mom-and-pop shop operations won’t be enough for the national stage. That was the challenge faced by processed meat manufacturer Pampanga’s Best when the company sought to extend its consumer base beyond the provincial north.

Luckily, upgrading to the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution SAP Business One helped Pampanga’s Best become a leading meat product distributor not only in its home province, but throughout the Philippines. Here’s the story of how Pampanga’s Best overcame the challenges of expansion and successfully grew its business after investing in the ERP and making ANSI Information Systems, Inc. its SAP Business One partner.

From Provincial Stardom to the Pressures of Nationwide Product Distribution

Pampanga, a province located in Central Luzon, is widely considered one of the culinary capitals of the Philippines. It is famous for dishes like sisig, tibok-tibok, bringhe, camaro, and cured meats like tocino (which is inspired by the Kapampangan recipe for pindang or fermented pork). The latter’s sweet and salty taste was popularized by Lolita O. Hizon, founder of the company Pampanga’s Best.

From its simple origins as a mom-and-pop outfit forty years ago, Pampanga’s Best has since evolved into a multi-million peso distributor of tocino as well as longganisa, hotdogs, ham, bacon, tapa, embutido, burger patties, corned beef, nuggets, and barbecue. The corporation’s distribution channels include national grocery chains and supermarkets as well as hotels, resorts, and caterers.

The more popular Pampanga’s Best products became across in the country, the more difficult it became for the company to manage its inventory of meat and other ingredients. On top of problems with inventory management, the company struggled at keeping its finances in order. Even as their financial housekeeping needs grew more complex, employees relied mostly only on Microsoft Excel to collate financial data and generate reports.

Moreover, a general lack of solution integration plagued the different departments. Accounting and inventory staff used one type of software to manage payables and receivables, while sales staff used another. It would take extra time for the staff to reconcile the data and come to resolutions about matters of inventory, budget, and finances.

The absence of a unified system for inventory oversight, financials, and customer relationships eventually weighed down on the company. Key management decisions were delayed due to the slow generation of complete financial reports. Pampanga’s Best executives eventually realized the need to modernize their financial system in order to accommodate their rapid growth, and this led them to choose SAP Business One as their ERP solution.

Improved Inventory Insight and Financial Data Consolidation with SAP Business One

Pampanga’s Best made the shift to SAP Business One in 2014. Accounting Manager Bernard Escoto cited the ERP’s ease of use and flexibility among the reasons they chose SAP Business One. The company began by integrating its key accounting processes with the ERP, quickly followed by operations processes.

It didn’t take long for good results to materialize. Pampanga’s Best staff became more efficient at compiling internal revenue reports, thus making it easier for the company to meet its compliance and accreditation requirements. Overall productivity rose by 10%, monitoring and collection of receivables improved by 20%, and cost savings for report customization increased by 100%. Meanwhile, operating costs dipped by 5%, thus saving the meat distributor a lot of money.

SAP Business One channel partner ANSI Information Systems was only too happy to help Pampanga’s Best improve its systems and move forward in its expansion goals. Noting that Pampanga’s Best was one of the country’s most well-loved brands for processed meats and breakfast foods, ANSI Vice President for Sales and Marketing Charlene Sun expressed the company’s eagerness to play a part in the former’s growth.

Onboarding SAP Business One empowered Pampanga’s Best to stay on track of its growth plans and confront exciting new business challenges on the national stage. Business owners who dream of a similar expansion can take a leaf out of Pampanga’s Best’s book, especially when it comes to marrying homegrown tradition with modern business technology.

Contact ANSI and Grow Your Business with SAP Business One

If you dream of upscaling your business operations from the local to the national level, make a tech investment that can accommodate this growth. Onboard a powerful but easy-to-use ERP like SAP Business One with the help of ANSI Information Systems. Our portfolio includes many clients who have succeeded like Pampanga’s Best.

We’ll equip you with the tech tools you need to expand your business to a wider market. Trust ANSI to help you integrate your processes with SAP Business One and run this ERP according to your business’s unique needs. Contact ANSI today to schedule a free demo.