Industry News

Emydex Customers grow via Acquisitions and Expansions

8th July 2013

Emydex’s existing customer base has grown significantly over the past 18 months, with Emydex customers adding 10 new sites to their existing food processing operations. Whether a sign that Irish & UK based Agri-food industries continue to perform strongly in a global market downturn or a sign that food processors that invest in Emydex systems continue to be successful or both, it is certainly a positive development for all parties involved.

Most recently the Kepak Group announced the take-over of ABP’s beef processing facility in Ballybay, Ireland (formerly Silvercrest) on the back of winning the Burger King contract to exclusively supply burgers to Burger King Restaurants in Ireland and the UK¹. The acquisition safeguards 125 jobs at the Ballybay facility.

Also announced in the past few months, Euro Farm Foods are to extend their beef abattoir processing facility in Duleek, Ireland by adding a new boning hall operation that will create 50 new jobs for the region².

In addition a recent Emydex customer Kavanagh Meats in Co Wexford, Ireland has begun work on a new project with Emydex to build a new Beef and Lamb abattoir to add to their existing Beef and Lamb Boning hall operation in Enniscorthy. Meanwhile in Scotland, Vivers/Scotlamb this month (July 2013) announced their intention to extend their Emydex lamb kill line system into their existing Lamb boning hall operation in Dumfries.

All these developments follow a series of expansions and acquisitions by two of Emydex’s largest group customers over the past 18 months. The Dunbia group last month opened a £12m revamp of their Lamb processing facility in Llanybydder, Wales that includes an innovative de-boning operation provided by Emydex in conjunction with SF Engineering³. This follows the Dunbia Groups’ acquisition of the G Woods pork processing operation in Mansfield, England in March 2013⁴, as well as the acquisition of Heathfield Foods in Crewe, England in November 2011⁵.

The Dawn Meats group, one of Ireland’s largest food processors opened a new €14m facility in Carroll’s Cross, Ireland in June 2012⁶. The 40,000 square foot facility was purpose built to service a €300 million contract to process up to 18,000 tonnes of Irish beef annually for McDonald’s. The beef processing facility produce up to three million hamburgers per day, which are exported abroad to McDonald’s markets throughout Europe. This new plant follows the Dawn group’s acquisitions of West Devon Meats, England in April 2012⁷ as well as Duerden Meats, England in September 2011⁸.

References

IT Solutions in the Food Industry Event on 28th May

1st May 2013

Recent events concerning horse meat found in the food supply chain have renewed focus once again on the need for integrated Financial, Traceability and Quality Systems to manage the complex food processing supply chain.

The Microsoft Food Industry event on 28th May will feature presentations and integrated demonstrations from 3 leading Irish software vendors, each with their own specialist area of expertise and software systems to help Food Producers manage different aspects of their businesses.

This seminar will be an opportunity to learn how joined up IT systems specially tailored for the Food processing Industries can deliver a "total plant" IT solution enabling:

Financial Management & Control
Stock Control & Stock Management
Production & Traceability Reporting
Yield, Costs and Give-away Reporting
Factory, line and Operator performance Reporting
Quality & Food Safety Management

For Plant Managers & IT Managers

Emydex technology, Simply Dynamics and Safefood 360 provide a fully integrated solution covering Production, Finance and Quality management systems

For Production & IT Managers

Emydex Technology are the leading supplier of Production Management Software Systems to food Processors in Ireland, and count companies such as Dawn Meats, Dunbia Group, Kepak, Liffey Meats, Oliver Carty, Moy Park and Rockabill Fish as customers.

Developed using Microsoft technologies, Emydex's factory floor data capture and Traceability reporting systems are operating in over 40 food processing plants spread over Ireland the UK and France, for some of the largest Food processing companies in Industries such as Beef, Lamb, Pork, Poultry and Fish.

The system is highly customisable and configurable such that it can be tailored to match the specific business requirements of any food processor.

For Finance & IT Managers

Simply Dynamics is a leading provider of ERP business management software. Amongst our customers we are proud to count Liffey Meats, Oliver Carty, Horgans Delicatessen Supplies, Devenish Nutrition and Flahavans. A Microsoft Gold ERP Partner, we have a single product focus: supplying, modifying, and supporting Microsoft Dynamics Nav. We also develop an extensive range of customised Dynamics Nav software add-ons.

At Simply Dynamics, we are committed to providing the highest quality customer service, working closely with our customers to ensure the success of their ERP systems. We are headquartered in Dublin and have a team of dedicated ERP specialists with multi-disciplinary business backgrounds, and over 100 man years of ERP industry knowledge.

For Quality & Technical Managers

Safefood 360 is a young, innovative technology company dedicated to developing and supplying the global food industry with food safety compliance software solutions that work. Our team is made up of practitioners from both the Food and IT industries who know the needs of our end users because we worked in these roles.

This experience and insight is built into our solutions from day-one making them powerful, intuitive and a pleasure to use. Our solutions allow food processing plants set-up, plan, record and reports on all aspects of food safety management including HACCP, PRP's, management, documents and monitoring.

It is perfect for companies seeking or maintaining certification to GFSI standards, FSMA, retailer and legal compliance.

Emydex at MeatUp UK 2013

24th March 2013

Emydex will be exhibiting at the forthcoming MeatUp 2013 exhibition taking place at the NEC Birmingham on 2nd and 3rd of July 2013.

Emydex are sharing a stand (313) with a UK hardware partner MWS Ltd of Leicester.

The exhibition will showcase the Emydex Recipe weighing module running on a RADWAG PUE5.15. PC terminal / weight indicator for whom MWS are UK agents. The recipe module will be configured for burger production.

Also on the stand will be Emydex’s latest OCM packing station software. Again running on a RADWAG PUE5.15.

Demonstrations and presentions will be available on other Emydex Meat Industry software modules.

MWS will be showing a selection of their high quality stainless steel weighing equipment, equipment stands and printer cabinets.

7.5m Head of Livestock

7th February 2013

Those in charge of the mammoth administrative task of buying and tracing 7.5m head of livestock per year in Ireland have emerged intact from the horse burger controversy.

Much of the credit must go to companies like Emydex in Dublin.

Emydex software is designed to manage food production processes from door to door, from arrival of animals to the abattoir, through kill line, boning hall, warehousing and dispatch.

The system includes real-time links to both the government-run animal movement and tracking systems as well as quality assurance schemes, and provides for full meat traceability.

It manages the complex system of payments to farmers, but also enables customers to run their food production lines more efficiently; manage, control and report on stock; analyse their yields and costs; and report on food chain traceability and factory and operator performance.

Today, Emydex is running in four out of the top five meat producing companies on the island of Ireland, and in more than 40 plants spread all over Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Scotland, Wales and France.

The company is celebrating its rollout in the Dawn Meats Group, one of the largest suppliers of Irish and British beef, pork and lamb in Europe, and an Emydex customer since 2007. It is planned to complete the Emydex roll-out across the group in 2013, including the lamb processing in Ballyhaunis.

Emydex also supplies software to Kepak, and the Dunbia Group and Moy Park in the UK. The software runs on any compatible hardware system.

Just how complex the challenge is can be seen in the very first step of the meat chain, procuring livestock and paying for them.

Each year, Irish export plants buy almost 1.4 million cattle, 2.5m sheep, and 3.5 million pigs …

Oliver Carty improves financial management with Simply Dynamics

1st February 2013

Simply Dynamics improves financial management for Ireland’s largest bacon producer

ERP solution from Simply Dynamics enabling 50% time reduction to run financial reports for Oliver Carty
40% reduction in time to complete cheque run process for finance department
Robust EDI inbound and outbound message management

Dublin, 26th February 2013 – Simply Dynamics, a leading provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, today announced that it has implemented an ERP solution for Irish pork, bacon and rasher producer Oliver Carty. The new solution is supporting the company’s on-going expansion and providing them with greater visibility and management of key financial functions.

The Simply Dynamics engagement with Oliver Carty has a contract to the value of €80,000.

After a site visit and analysis of their existing systems, Emydex proposed to implement their replacement Production Management system in two initial project phases.

Oliver Carty is a family run Irish business located in Athlone and is one of Ireland’s largest producers of bacon. It currently has 140 employees which increases substantially at different times of the year to meet seasonal demand and has a turnover of €45 million. Oliver Carty supplies a range of branded and own brand pork, bacon and rasher products to Ireland’s key retailers.

Oliver Carty operated an amalgamation of four different software systems, namely financial, intake, production, and dispatch. The interaction between the four systems was minimal, causing serious delays with the availability of real-time information and reporting bottlenecks.

After a full analysis of the existing software, Oliver Carty decided to replace their entire system with two fully integrated software solutions that could manage all of the financial and factory floor production processes from door-to-door.

Simply Dynamics was chosen for its Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP solution. Microsoft Dynamics NAV is providing the finance department with immediate access to information such as order history, credit management, order status, and claims processing.

Oliver Carty has achieved some significant benefits as a result of the new solution including a 50% reduction in the time taken to run financial reports and a 40% reduction in the time to complete the cheque run process.

The Microsoft Dynamics Nav system delivered by Simply Dynamics integrates fully with Oliver Carty’s production management software, which was provided by Emydex Technology. The combination of the Simply Dynamics and Emydex systems enables communication and synchronisation of both master and transactional data from all departments within the organisation to Microsoft Dynamics Nav. This fully integrated solution can now be applied to any future Emydex and Simply Dynamics implementations.

Nicole Verdon, financial controller, Oliver Carty said, “The integration between Simply Dynamics and Emydex provides us with instant visibility and traceability across the entire organisation. The Simply Dynamics solution has also streamlined all our processes and we now have real-time access to our key performance indicators such as yield, pricing and invoicing data for the company.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is also enabling Oliver Carty to manage multiple sales order processes including Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) which is essential in the food distribution industry for communication with its retail customers. It also has the ability to account for catch weights, enabling Oliver Carty to manage products priced by weight but whose weight varies.

Ted Carty, managing director, Oliver Carty commented, “We operate in a market where the price of raw materials are constantly changing so we need to have the most accurate information at any given time. Simply Dynamics has provided us with highly integrated, real-time information at our fingertips, enabling us to make fast and smart business decisions.”

Willie Fitzgerald, Sales Manager, Simply Dynamics said, “Microsoft Dynamics NAV has given Oliver Carty the ability to simplify access to business critical financial information and enhance its control and visibility over an expanding business. As the company continues to grow Microsoft Dynamics NAV has the flexibility to change and grow with them and meet the unique needs of a company operating in the food distribution industry.”

David McMahon, CEO, Emydex said “the Emydex factory floor data capture and production reporting system is designed to be ‘open’ such that it can interface to, and exchange data with any 3rd party ERP or financial system, as well as any 3rd party Cold Store or Supplier systems. The fact we have now collaborated closely with Simply Dynamics to build a bridge to Microsoft’s NAV ERP system is a win-win for all parties but especially our customers. “Build once, use many times” means the integration points between Emydex and NAV come practically out-of-the-box reducing installation and testing time and hence cost.”

Oliver Carty plans to extend its Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution to incorporate other areas of the business such as inventory and warehousing over the coming months.

Source article: Simply Dynamics – Oliver Carty news article
For more information on the Emydex system click here or contact Emydex on +353 1 8855990

Emydex rollout across Dawn Meats Group

8th January 2013

An Emydex customer since 2007, the Dawn Meats Group is one of the largest suppliers of Irish and British Beef, Pork and Lamb in Europe.

Last year (2012) was a milestone year for the group as it secured a 5 year €300m contract for McDonalds, in addition to building a new state of the art patty plant at Carroll’s Cross, Co Waterford, as well as acquiring West Devon Meats in South West England. This follows the group’s acquisition of the Duerden beef abattoir in the Lake District, and the upgrade of their beef slaughter and processing plant in Cardington, UK in 2011.

Dawn Meats began rolling out Emydex’s Production Management software system across the group during 2008. Four years later, Emydex continues to operate as the group standard factory floor data capture and production and traceability reporting system in 11 of the 13 plants within the group including Dawn Meats France.

From Carcass intake, through boning, further processing, packing, box stock and dispatch, Emydex captures and reports on production data, enabling Dawn Meats to analyse and manage their stocks, yields and dispatches, whilst maintaining full food chain traceability.

Commenting on the Emydex system roll-out Shane Slattery, Group IT Manager with Dawn Meats said “Emydex is a central pillar of our strategic IT plan going forward, and our goal now is to concentrate on completing the roll-out of Emydex to our primary processing sites by year end. This plan may seem aggressive, but we believe that it is achievable on account of the inherent flexibility of the core Emydex product to handle any differences in the business processes required in our disparate sites”.

Plans are to complete the Emydex roll-out across the group in 2013, with the implementation of the system at Dawn’s Lamb processing plant in Ballyhaunis in Ireland, as well as the roll-out of Emydex’s kill line & payments systems to all of Dawn’s slaughter plants within the group.

For more information on the Emydex kill line system contact Emydex on +353 1 8855990

Emydex Customers grow via Acquisitions and Expansions

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