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Weetabix Deploys Manhattan Associates to Optimise International Fulfilment Operation

30.06.2009

Breakfast cereal manufacturer drives operational efficiency, inventory visibility and customer service improvements with market-leading supply chain platform

Global supply chain optimisation provider, Manhattan Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: MANH), today announced that The Weetabix Food Company, the UK's foremost breakfast cereal producer, has improved stock accuracy from less than 90 percent to 99.9 percent and improved operational efficiency following its phased roll-out of Manhattan Associates' Warehouse Management solution.

"The solution has so far been implemented in two warehouses at our 82 acre Burton Latimer site in Northamptonshire," commented George Perry, head of Supply Chain at Weetabix. "Together they hold a total of 35,000 pallets and serve clients throughout the UK. Both warehouses were previously managed using a legacy system and many paper-based processes. With support from radio-frequency technology for the scanning of bar code and stock locations labels, all stock transactions are now controlled by the Manhattan system which is in turn interfaced to our business ERP system. The next phase of the project will focus on the solution's deployment to a third warehouse at our Burton Latimer Site, dedicated to products destined for export markets.

Weetabix employs more than 2,300 people globally and has operations in the USA, Canada, continental Europe and South Africa. The company's best known cereal, Weetabix, accounts for 8 percent of the UK's total cereal sales with annual sales worth over £100million. Approximately 10 percent of all products manufactured at the UK site are exported.

The decision to select Manhattan Associates' supply chain platform followed a review of Weetabix's existing technology infrastructure. The company opted for a phased approach which interlinked with a number of wider improvement programmes and change management processes.

"Knowing the exact location of 35,000 pallets was impossible with the previous legacy system which Weetabix had simply out-grown. It just wasn't sophisticated enough for the ever increasing business requirements," explained George Perry. "The Manhattan system has dramatically improved stock accuracy by pallet location, giving us full traceability and enables us to store and distribute products with a significantly reduced pallet pool. We are also benefiting from using the dual cycling functionality. This enables the WMS to integrate tasks to take best advantage of where the pickers are in the warehouse, ensuring that a forklift is rarely empty. This has improved operational efficiency tremendously."

"Weetabix is reaping the rewards of taking a considered approach to the project," said Allen Scott, UK managing director at Manhattan Associates. "It was important to maintain the company's excellent levels of customer service and to ensure that the transition to the new system was seamless. Weetabix's thorough preparation in terms of testing, training and due diligence meant that the company was able to see benefits immediately after the implementation."