Powering optimism in the Pacific Islands
Business success stories: Kokonut Pacific
General Manager
Castaly Lombe
Location
Queanbeyan, Australia
Industry
Wholesale distribution: equipment & health food
For the past 20 years, Kokonut Pacific has pursued one powerful mission: to empower and raise the wellbeing of rural communities of the Pacific islands through the production of premium grade coconut oil and products. Operating under a social enterprise model, Kokonut Pacific invests in and works with local communities to help them build sustainable enterprises, leverage new technologies and positively impact lives.
With its local partners, Kokonut Pacific manages diverse services, including coconut oil press manufacture, coconut oil production, organic and fair trade certification, quality control, storage and transport. They also export and market coconut products to bulk, wholesale and retail markets across the globe via their Niulife brand.
Working with complex infrastructure and multiple distribution channels, Kokonut Pacific needed a streamlined system to fuel their expansion while allowing them to quickly respond to growing market opportunities.
Pain points that drove Kokonut Pacific to partner with JCurve Solutions
No visibility of sales trends or forecasts.
Inadequate inventory management.
Lack of system integration across the business.
Rapid growth was stretching business operations at the seams due to manual and inefficient processes.
Legacy customer, financial and payroll management systems without modern capabilities.
JCurve ERP: Simplifying Complexity
Kokonut Pacific began in 1994, when founder Dr. Dan Etherington created a way for local Pacific Island Communities to produce commercial quantities of pure, natural coconut oil in their own village.
The company grew rapidly, but legacy systems were slowing it down. A proprietary software system was in use, which became resource intensive and reliant on a single staff member.
Kokonut Pacific made the switch to JCurve ERP in 2013 and hasn’t looked back.
As Kokonut Pacific General Manager, Castaly Lombe, explains, “JCurve ERP has unified our operations into one neat solution and enabled us to grow our capabilities across the Pacific. Comprehensive inventory control, streamlined financial management, and most importantly, customer relationship management tools have helped us grow markets for our producers across the globe.”
Ms Lombe says JCurve ERP helped navigate the complexity of the business, which manages five distribution channels: manufacturing; selling and supporting coconut oil presses; global bulk sales and distribution; domestic wholesaling and online retailing.
“We’ve seen growth of around 30% year-on-year and doubled our staffing, warehousing and oil sales – all powered by JCurve ERP, a system we refer to affectionately as having more grunt than Arnold Schwarzenegger.”
Empowering growth and strength from business to the community
The benefits of using JCurve ERP proved profound for this operation. The advanced CRM, inventory, financial and business intelligence capabilities empowered the management team to steer and grow the operations from the original family-centric business into an evolving and rapidly expanding business.
“We’ve seen growth of around 30% year-on-year and doubled our staffing, warehousing and oil sales. JCurve ERP has helped us so much that we affectionately say it has more grunt than Arnold Schwarzenegger,” says Ms Lombe.
JCurve ERP has not only helped drive impressive growth, but it has also revealed some inefficiencies previously hidden within the business.
“JCurve ERP was a much-welcomed sea-change from our old systems. Financial control, payroll, inventory management, stock procurement and process problems that were previously unknown became glaringly obvious. This increased transparency has given us the opportunity to look closely at everything we do, and we’re a stronger business as a result,” says Ms Lombe.
“You simply don’t know what you don’t know, and with a system as powerful as JCurve ERP, we’re confident that there is more potential for our business just waiting to be realised.”
Committed to maximising the power of JCurve ERP, Kokonut Pacific plan to take the business to the next level with consultancy and training that will improve overall efficiencies. “With a system as powerful as JCurve ERP, we know there’s still more potential for our business that is just waiting to be realised,” Ms Lombe comments.
The transparency, accuracy and real-time nature of JCurve ERP’s data intelligence has also allowed Kokonut Pacific to anticipate changes in what can be a fickle marketplace. “JCurve ERP has delivered such a strong foundation that we can now capitalise on new opportunities while navigating the downturns and increasing competition in some markets,” Ms Lombe explains.
“Every efficiency delivered by JCurve ERP is a cost saving for our business. We can then put those savings back into fulfilling our mission of empowering and bringing hope to coconut growing communities.”
But the real impact of Kokonut Pacific’s new efficiencies goes beyond business processes. The true impact is seen in the lives of thousands of people across the Pacific:
• 5195 jobs created in a Pacific Island country that has 90% unemployment
• Hundreds of ventures created in remote rural locations have increased wealth, improved living conditions and crucial new skills
Growth in the numbers
Business guide
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One cloud-based system
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