About Sea Breeze Syrups
Sea Breeze Syrups is a fourth generation, family-owned beverage and equipment supplier that will celebrate its centenary next year. The New Jersey-based business has three key pillars to its operations. Firstly, it manufactures beverage concentrates and syrups including sodas, juices, teas, cocktail mixers, energy drinks, and smoothie mixes – which are typically shipped in bag-in-a-box packaging, jugs, and bottles.
Sea Breeze also installs, repairs, and maintains the equipment to dispense its products, namely bar guns, fountain dispensers, as well as juice and coffee machines. Most of this takes place within the New York/New Jersey area, where it serves restaurants and bars as well as catering halls, nursing homes, jails, schools, and offices.
Another important part of its offering is the production and supply of its range of own-branded BOSCO syrups as well as supermarket and private label brands, which it ships across the world.
Problem
With the business continuing to grow and so many elements to its operations, Sea Breeze had become reliant on multiple software systems to serve its customers. It used a dedicated accounting system, another for order entry and distribution service, and other programs for labelling, delivery routing, Customer Relationship Management (CRM), and more.
Managing so many platforms had not only become increasingly complex and cumbersome, but the team had started to lose faith in some of the software and found the technical support extremely lacking. Errors were creeping into processes, workflows were proving inefficient, and customer service was being impacted, says Josh Sanders, Vice President at Sea Breeze.
“We were having problems, particularly with issues syncing between the systems,” he says. “The few people who seemed to know their systems really well had left the companies, which meant it was really difficult to get answers to questions when we had them.”
Fortunately, given Sea Breeze’s positive experiences with Datacor, it started to explore extending their relationship and discussed adopting its other software solutions.
Sea Breeze switched to Datacor as its sole vendor in early January 2024.
Solution
Having a single point of contact for all its software needs was just one of the major selling points of making the switch to Datacor, says Sanders.
Knowing that everything is now seamlessly integrated and can communicate effectively has been a huge weight off his mind, particularly after experiencing first-hand the difficulties of trying to work with different platforms and customer service teams.
Not only was the support he received during setup fantastic, but the entire system now feels more secure and reliable than before, he says.
“Our old system used to live on a server based at our facility and we always used to worry in case there was a problem and we couldn't get into it. Now, with Datacor and its use of the cloud, it’s one less thing to worry about – I just have to focus on whether we are connected to the internet. It’s great that someone else has responsibility for making sure everything is running.”
“I can't imagine anybody, anywhere in the world, saying that implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is ever easy,” adds Sanders. “But this is now the third ERP system implementation I've ever done and has been the smoothest of the bunch. It's been a lot of hard work, but the people we've worked with at Datacor have been really helpful and responsive getting the system in place. We’ve all been working towards the same goal and that’s been key. They’ve been hyper focused on getting us up and running.”
It's also the first time Sea Breeze has used a Warehouse Management System (WMS) and Manufacturing Execution System (MES), and Sanders has been impressed with how easy it is to keep track of ingredients and manage inventories.
“It’s a great improvement being able to make movements using a handheld device and for our processors who are making up our batches of product to simply scan the QR codes on our raw ingredients and primary packaging. They love it; it makes their lives so much easier.”
“We used to have to hand write a lot number or a movement in the warehouse and then put it in the system. The new software reduces the amount of manual work and the potential for mistakes.”
Results
The response from the Sea Breeze team since implementation has been hugely positive, with the delivery and service staff already seeing the benefits, says Sanders.
“It's a marked difference versus our old system and it’s so easy to use,” he says. “We lot control everything and used to have a separate scanner connected via Bluetooth to scan all our boxes. Now, we can just use our phone cameras, so it's one less device we have to carry around.”
Serial numbers, barcodes, and lot numbers on its refillable containers, bottles, and boxes can now be scanned quickly and easily – allowing important information about customers, delivery status, contents, production runs, and expiry dates to be captured instantly.
Sanders says his experience of working with Datacor and the support he’s received has been excellent and he wouldn’t hesitate to recommend its software to others.
Having a provider that is always developing new features, modules, and add-ons also means the software can grow with the business, he says. Moving forward, Sea Breeze is looking at the possibility of introducing a customer portal and a payment system where they can place product orders, service orders, and pay bills.
“We're looking forward to seeing some of the improvements that are on Datacor’s roadmap that, for example, will allow us to carry out certain inspections for ingredients as they come in, see if trucks are clean, or whether we’ve received a certificate of analysis,” he says. “Their future plans sound really exciting, and we look forward to seeing them. It's nice that they’re always thinking of new ways to help your business.”
“We're quite unique in that I think we're now pretty much using every product Datacor has to offer,” he says. “Sea Breeze is not only a batch manufacturer, we also do delivery, field service, handle cylinders, have outside sales reps using the CRM, and use LabelCalc – Datacor’s nutritional software.”
“We’re part of a large trade group called the International Beverage Dispensing Equipment Association (IBDEA) and I think Datacor’s system would be of real benefit to all those companies. Any batch process manufacturer could really benefit. It’s changed the way our business operates for the better.”
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