How Ruminate are Ensuring Animal Safety Through Stock Control
Ruminate are nutrition specialists that combine world-class research with a genuine understanding of farming in New Zealand. Friends Alastair and Jack founded Ruminate in 2016 after identifying what the NZ farming industry were missing – targeted nutrition support, that unlocks the full potential of a farmer’s livestock.
Ruminate offer both ‘off-the-shelf’ solutions, and customised mineral feed additives manufactured specifically for a farmer’s herd, supporting a wide range of livestock, including dairy and beef cows, sheep and goats.
From their previous experience in manufacturing, Alastair and Jack knew that inventory management would be crucial for the success of Ruminate, from production through to stock control of the final products.
The Challenge
When looking for an inventory management software, the team at Ruminate had a list of requirements, as they knew without a strong system, the business wouldn’t work effectively. Some of their key requirements were:
- Precise stock control and ingredient accuracy due to the high-risk nature of their industry
- End-to-end visibility across production, from raw materials through to finished goods delivery
- Strong traceability of materials, product batches and activity
- Consistent control as they scaled across multiple sites and growing stock volumes
“We knew from the jump that we needed to get a good inventory system in if we were going to have a chance at making this whole business work.” - Jack Tarrant, Managing Director, Ruminate.
How Unleashed has Helped
Scalability
The most notable impact that Unleashed has had for Ruminate, is how it’s supported them to grow their operations.
When they first started the business, they had a team of 3 people, a single manufacturing site, with around $50,000 NZD in stock, whereas now, they have a team of 20, with approximately $1million NZD in stock over 3 locations.
Jack stated: “The things I like most about Unleashed is that it's grown with our business. As we've grown and got multiple manufacturing sites and different staff members in different locations, doing different things, it's been malleable enough to handle all of that.”
Production Visibility
Having visibility of their entire production process was crucial for Ruminate, due to the critical nature of the products they’re manufacturing, a wrongly selected raw ingredient could have a detrimental effect on the animals it’s given to.
Not only do they need a clear view of raw materials in stock, the production process and their finished products, they also required the ability to track where the materials came from, as well as assigning batches, both of these ensure compliance and allow traceability, should they need to look into a batch.
With Unleashed, they have all the visibility they need, with real-time inventory levels, regular stock counts, production management as well as attribute and batch tracking capabilities at their fingertips.
“One of the key features that have made a big difference to our business is batch tracking. Everything that goes out of here has got a batch number on it, and from that number we can trace back, we'll have a sample of the product, plus we can tell you every product that's gone into it and where it's come from, where it's got here, how it's got here, and who put it into a bag” - Jack Tarrant, Managing Director, Ruminate.
Additionally, Josh also enjoys the visibility Unleashed allows, no matter where he is in the country. Wherever he’s travelled to, he can simply open his laptop and have full visibility of their operations, including customer sales, as well as identifying if any raw materials need restocking or if there are any production bottlenecks that need addressing.
Pricing and Margin Control
Unleashed has helped the Ruminate team overcome a challenge they were having with freight charges on top of product prices – during pricing conversations, customers were expecting to receive a ‘delivered price’, and with the variable nature of freight charges, it was becoming difficult to estimate and add to quotes.
Unleashed helped with this, as the team took the decision to average freight costs, and add that across all items, allowing their sales team to provide ‘on-farm prices’ to their customers and reducing friction during conversations about variable freight costs.
What’s next for Ruminate?
The future of Ruminate is to continue their business growth, with the help of Unleashed. Josh said: “The future plans for Ruminate is to continue growing in this market. We think the market's a growing market, and we've got a unique offering. Two of the key things are product quality and reliability of supply, so stock management is a key function of our whole business, which will maintain as we grow.”