Western Bakery aligns ERP with Almarai

Saudi’s Western Bakery and International Baking Services, two Almarai Group companies have deployed SAP ERP to improve financial management and operations.

The two companies, part of the Almarai Group, the largest integrated dairy foods company in the world, selected SAP to centralize financial, procurement, production planning, and plant maintenance services, and to enable them to cut operating costs through better planning and management.

The solution, which replaces an existing Oracle deployment, will also allow for greater integration of systems with other companies within the Almarai Group. The Group is a long standing customer of SAP, achieving BS7799 standard in 2003 to tailor its business to get maximum return on the investment.

The new project follows on from the acquisition of Western Bakery in 2006, and will initially support 50 users at Western Bakery, with online integration with the rest of the group.

Majed Nofal, CEO of Western Bakeries, commented: “We want to be able to leverage the efficiencies of the entire Almarai group structure, and that means being online and seamlessly integrated with our sister companies. SAP’s industry leading solutions will give us the technical bandwidth to reduce operational costs and be more competitive.”“Almarai is one of the best known brands operating in the Gulf region,” said Sergio Maccotta, managing director, SAP Middle East and North Africa LLC. “What global SAP solutions bring to the group of companies is a more beneficial integration as the group grows even further in size and sophistication.”

The value of the deal was not disclosed.