Horizon Wholefoods is an established wholesale wholefoods brand with a reputation for their friendly-neighbourhood vibe and high-quality service.
A favoured choice for vegans and vegetarians across the nation, Horizon Wholefoods provide 100% vegetarian and GM-free food. For 40 years, under the name Rainbow Wholefoods, they have been fully dedicated to organic food and ethical sourcing.
Today, with their new name, that dedication continues in every step that Horizon takes towards health and happiness.
With their exciting rebrand, the Horizon Wholefoods team realised a hole in their otherwise-formidable operation. As often happens with long-term established businesses, the modern world had somewhat passed Horizon by. All their nuanced processes were in the previous owner’s head, from customer management to accountancy, invoicing, client discounts and stock. In short, Horizon needed a technology partner to bring them into the 21st century.
Needing the best bang for their buck to offset the inevitable costs of ownership transition, Horizon entered into a collaboration with Pivotal; the only local partner they knew could cope with the every requirement of a growing business operating at scale.
“Pivotal have been as committed as we are to this since day one.
Abraham Wagegen Managing Director – Horizon Wholefoods
We could not be more grateful to have such a skilled and knowledgable team on our side.”
Immersion
At Pivotal, we become part of your team – it’s just the way we do things. We would travel across the country and back to make sure you know we’re on your side. Thankfully, with Horizon Wholefoods, we’re both based in Norwich.
This expedited our immersion within the Horizon team, so that we could fully and accurately scope out the steps to success and how best to apply our skill set and digital strategies for maximum value.
New management and rebranding is often a scary and delicate time, but one that we know a strong collaboration makes a whole lot smoother.
Digital Upgrade
With Pivotal staff onsite and integrating into the Horizon team, our top priority became instantly clear. We needed to thoroughly digitise the entire Horizon Wholefoods process, and remove any single point of failure possibility.
Leaning on our most tech-savvy team members, we set about replacing Horizon’s computers with upgraded models. Next, we improved their internet connection. Posting our staff on location at Horizon’s HQ, we implemented processes and procedures, and provided training to their team every step of the way.
And thanks to our nearby locale, we were able to arrive at the drop of a hat whenever our help was needed.
Stock Management
Horizon’s previous stock management involved manually exploring their stockroom with a pen and paper. This included taking manual notes and making purchase decisions based on gut feelings. Naturally, once we’d established a more modern technological setup for Horizon, we set our sights on improving this limited efficiency process.
Instincts are important, but data drives success. And looking at Horizon’s data it was clear – their customers had reached their maximum happiness levels.
By implementing Linnworks to manage Horizon’s stock, we took guesswork out of the equation. This opened the path to greater customer satisfaction and smoother operations. Now, Horizon can make data-driven decisions when it comes to purchasing, accounting, profit vs loss, what to hold stock of, what trends are relevant, and what products to market and promote.
This not only removed much of Horizon’s manual processes, it offered them absolute clarity on everything from customer relations to the dispatch process.
Increased Customer Satisfaction
By seamlessly digitising the already successful Horizon processes, we were able to bring Horizon into the modern digital world. All without upsetting the ecosystem of their established customers.
With countless businesses reliant on Horizon to supply healthy foods for their restaurants and shops (each with their own terms, agreements and discounts), getting it right was an essential first step to maintaining those all-important B2B relationships. And improving it with measures like auto-discounts was a solid second step, too.
After an increase in sales and loyalty (backed by data which also helped increase profitability margins), our collaboration with Horizon was starting to produce some significant, measurable results.
Magento 2
Upgrading Horizon’s eCommerce website to Magento 2 helped tie the whole package together; connecting data from Linnworks and Horizon’s customers and site visitors into a format that was easy to extract valuable insights from.
By implementing Google Analytics and setting up website tracking, we were able to actively monitor user behaviour and buying trends. This, in turn, helped us strengthen Horizon’s new online presence; granting increased understanding of their growing customer base and identifying optimal areas for improvement across the board.
Functionality-first Future-proofing
At a time when Horizon’s future was uncertain, we were able to step in as part of a highly beneficial collaboration; one that helped this incredible company revitalise itself for the modern world.
After a year together, tearing apart and rebuilding processes behind the scenes, Horizon’s turnover has improved significantly. Everyone involved is agreed; things are much better now, and our functionality-first service-first approach has helped Horizon easily find their place in a digital world.
Next up is more growth, improved margins, solid KPIs and helping to strengthen their brand perception through quality content.