A proven commitment to their community, an emphasis on
sustainability for their supply chain and a genuine desire to 'play
fair' all underpin Leigh Fisheries' well deserved success as an
international exporter.
Under the brand name Lee Fish, Leigh Fisheries market and
distribute seafood to wholesalers and supermarkets worldwide.
Within 24-36 hours of being caught their fresh fish can be found on
tables halfway around the globe. Given this and the minimal
handling procedures they commit to, it's understandable that the
quality of the Lee Fish brand is recognised around the world as
representing premium-quality chilled seafood.
Behind this success though are a myriad of complexities which
need to be carefully managed.
Unlike most other fisheries in New Zealand Leigh Fisheries don't
own boats or employ fishermen. Instead their fish are caught by
over 75 independent boat owners New Zealand wide who specialise by
species, and elect to have a non-contractual partnership with them
in direct recognition of commitment by Leigh Fisheries to ensuring
that they are rewarded fairly and consistently for their
efforts.
Karen Butterfield, Group Financial Controller for Leigh
Fisheries commented: "For our fishermen to fish for us there's got
to be something in it for both of us. Normally within a primary
industry the fisher or producer is the lowest paid in chain but we
are committed to sustainability of income and growth for both their
businesses and ours."
Friend of the sea
As part of their commitment to sustainability Leigh Fisheries
carries certification from the highly regarded international
organisation Friend of the Sea. The group's seal of approval
verifies that products are caught using sustainable practices and
originate from sustainable fisheries.
Under the Quota Management System (QMS) Leigh Fisheries, along
with all other fisheries in New Zealand, is allocated the right to
catch specific quantities of particular species of fish. The QMS is
critical to New Zealand's reputation as the world's leader in
sustainable fisheries management. Visibility of catch and accurate
reporting is essential to fisheries to ensure they don't exceed
their quota and lose the right to catch and supply desirable
species to the world market.
In order to export to their markets in Europe and Asia Leigh
Fisheries have EU certification as well as the highest level of
accreditation from MAF, both of which are notoriously difficult to
achieve and maintain.
Fish to order
The logistics of catching fresh fish to fulfill specific orders
are daunting, especially when they span markets who are expecting
to have priority over certain species and want them delivered by
certain days. This requires a careful balancing act for the company
in order to maintain the long term relationships and high
expectations of the market and the supply chain, as well as
maximising the shareholders return despite fluctuating exchange
rates.
To stay afloat in such an environment requires constant
attention to the next catch and the next order. This is a challenge
requiring great planning abilities and complete visibility when you
are unable to guarantee the makeup of your catch, or stockpile for
longer than overnight to fulfill orders to 100% accuracy. The needs
of a growing market for Lee Fish by premium New Zealand restaurants
add to the complex equation.
Greg Bishop, Chief Executive Officer of Leigh Fisheries is
forward planning virtually 24/7. "To support the markets we've
developed we can't let them down without losing them. We can't let
our associate companies down, or our fishermen or our shareholders.
We also have to ensure our pricing delivers value to the market and
an income to our supply chain, as well as the company. There are so
many logistical factors which impact on us but we can't just turn
on the freezer, or leave fish in the chiller for 3-5 days to make
up an order. Our brand is all about delivering fresh fish, and
that's exactly what we do."
Old systems
Leigh Fisheries legacy system, Fish Pack, has served the company
well for many years, managing the initial catch from boat to
packing, compliance certification through to sales and export
documentation. The data generated by this system would then need to
be input into the quota management system, Solutions, to generate
quota returns to the Ministry of Fisheries as well as pay the
fishermen and act as general ledger.
Uncertainty about the practicalities of on-going development and
achieving the degree of visibility and reporting required in an
increasingly challenging business environment saw them re-evaluate
the future of both systems.
When Karen Butterfield joined Leigh Fisheries she had already
had exposure to Microsoft Dynamics AX and was able to see how it
could integrate with and support the Fish Pack and Solutions to
improve the overall correlation and dissemination of data to the
benefit of the company. Other key areas requiring improvement were
around the general ledger, where considerable manual intervention
was required to overcome its lack of functionality.
New system
1 October 2010 saw Leigh Fisheries implement Microsoft Dynamics
AX with leading Dynamics partner Koorb Consulting.
Although they had a relatively small amount of users the primary
value of the solution to Leigh Fisheries was not only in delivering
a best practice general ledger but enabling the development of OLAP
cubes.
The subsequent integration of Fish Pack, Solutions and Dynamics
AX now sees a flow of information from one to another and crucially
through to the Ministry of Fisheries online QMS.
From a central data repository the cubes produce a range of real
time views and reports which provide valuable information to Greg
Spencer Bishop. "We've got a cube which gives us a catch analysis
from Fish Pack data, one for our quota management system and
another for our financials from Dynamics AX. They give me the
information I need at my fingertips to make the right decisions.
For example our quota cube lets us do our quota management
reporting more cleverly, showing us all of our quota purchases,
costs, and the balances that we've got left as well as our
month-by-month usage. This sort of visibility helps us decide our
next steps and plan our allocation of monthly prepayments for quota
across our profit and loss."
The cubes allow the company to analyse the impact of foreign
exchange fluctuations and other variables. After years of having
systems which produced data which was unable to be utilised in this
manner Greg Spencer Bishop sees the cubes as presenting huge
opportunities to explore possible outcomes and options and be able
to validate decisions to stakeholders in the company. "Now with the
cube we're going to be able to report, be able to analyse
historically all of those things."
Role centres will be one of the next things Leigh Fisheries
explore and the expectations are high. "We know that Dynamics AX
gives us day-to-day value," says Karen Butterfield, "but the really
exciting things for us as a company are what role centres and cubes
can deliver."
Dynamics AX has also enabled quicker reporting, for example
moving from time consuming and complex spread sheets and setting up
FrX reporting instead has reduced a half day's work to a mere
minute.
The Ministry of Fisheries are more than happy with Leigh
Fisheries system's ability to capture, monitor and report on quota.
"Our system makes us unique", said Greg Bishop "it provides
complete transparency and traceability from catch through to sale
and includes the individual fisher's name and the boat name on
labels. Customers enjoy being able to identify with the catcher as
well as the company behind the brand."
Future
Leigh Fisheries consider successful relationships the crux of
their business and everything they do, from adhering to sustainable
business practises to investing in clever business solutions is
aimed at furthering this commitment.
"Relationships are paramount for us at every point," explained
Karen Butterfield. "Not just the customer relationship. Not just
the staff relationships, not just the shareholders, not just the
fishermen but all of them, and we try to work them all in so that
everybody's happy."
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Quick Facts:
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Workstations: 4
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Industry: Fishery
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Project Type: Upgrade
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Website:
www.leefish.ch
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Customer Size: 23
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Year: 2010
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Solutions:
FRx Currency Translator
FRx Reporter
MS Dynamics AX 2009
MS Windows Server 2008 for Windows Essential Server Solutions
MS SQL Server 2008
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Functional areas:
Financials, Trade and Logistics
Scenario:
Enterprise Resource Planning, Financial reporting, Business
Intelligence, EDI
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Benefits:
Delivery of best practice general ledger
Real time reporting
Complete sharing and visibility of all information across all
solutions
Superior management reporting through OLAP cubes
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