“Katana is one integrated solution that replaces our many spreadsheets. Also, the integration with our Shopify store and accounting software was a key consideration.”
— Irah Vat
Hornby Organic Founder
Company Profile
Company Profile
Hornby Organic is a Canadian brand producing organic energy bars. It started in an old garage ran by a young couple and grew into a food-production facility with the same mission in mind as in the beginning - to bring affordable organic food without our planet and customers paying the price.
During their take-off, they became the first company in Canada to produce a Canadian Certified Organic energy bar, proving that putting people's and the health of our planet before profit is an achievable goal for a company. Now you can find Hornby Organic bars on their online store or look for the closest retailer to find a shop near you.
Challenges
Challenges
As a food company, production management is not only about efficient operations, it is also about compliance with various requirements. Food production is complex, with thousands of businesses with various products, supplying the food that is consumed by the world's population.
For successful operations, Hornby Organic needed a solution for the following:
- End-to-end traceability from raw ingredients through to finished products
- Accurate inventory system for batch planning and warehousing; and
- Sales order management for their online shop and other retailers.
Why Katana?
Why Katana?
Before Katana, Hornby organics were using various spreadsheets to track all their processes. Spreadsheets are a great tool until the growth takes off and all the moving parts of the business are no longer manageable in spreadsheets.
“Katana is one integrated solution that replaces our many spreadsheets. Also, the integration with our Shopify store and accounting software was a key consideration.”
How Katana Helped
How Katana Helped
Katana has removed the time-consuming spreadsheets, and Hornby Organic now can focus on increasing their productivity and profitability, which is essential in the food industry that is known for its low margins. They have seen an improvement in the following areas of their business:
- More than 100% increase in inventory control - from raw ingredients to finished bars;
- Decreased the admin-time by half; and
- Doubled their production planning efficiency.
Furthermore, they have implemented end-to-end traceability to their products. This has been a critical feature to ensure the product quality and meet the safety standards of food manufacturing ingredients. Inventory control allows them to keep track of the ingredient and product expiry dates within each batch.
“Katana fulfills all our needs in a simple easy solution. As an organic food processor, traceability is a critical requirement, and our records must be meticulously kept.”
Hornby Organics manages their sales orders from various channels, and Katana brings all their orders to a single dashboard. From this centralized dashboard, they can automatically begin production, track their raw materials and ready goods while tracking their costs and profitability too.
