At 448 years old, Lucas Bols is one of the oldest companies in the Netherlands. Yet the beverage company is remarkably innovative, both in the development of new products and in its controls. External data is combined in Oracle Planning & Budgeting Cloud (PBC) with its own data to achieve detailed sales planning.
Predictability is essential, says Eric de Vries, Finance Director Brands & Markets at Lucas Bols: "We work in 110 countries with more than 20 brands, with all the dynamics that go with it. To be able to respond quickly to this, you need a good forecast. The more detailed you can plan, the more predictable you become."
"We want to be able to quickly see the implications of trends and developments."
Sales planning in Oracle PBC
To achieve this, Oracle PBC (formerly known as Oracle PBCS) is used for sales planning. The effects of trends and developments are immediately calculated in this. "We want to be able to quickly see the consequences, for example, if excise taxes are increased somewhere or if the Argentine peso devalues. We also want to be able to properly assess the impact of developments such as the Brexit," Eric says.
With over 20 brands in 110 countries, Lucas Bols is a major global player in liqueurs, genevers, gin and vodka. The organization has existed for 444 years, making it one of the Netherlands' oldest active companies. Despite this long company tradition, the beverage company is very innovative. For example, new products are constantly being developed to respond to trends in consumer behavior, such as cocktails with less alcohol or fewer calories.
Support growth strategy
Lucas Bols aims to further strengthen and grow its global brands, such as Bols and Galliano. Detailed sales planning supports this strategy. "You have to be able to provide insight into where you think growth is going to come from, and how you are going to achieve it," Eric says.
With these insights, specific kpi's for the commercial team and marketing are established. Eric: "It's good if you can back up the achievement of goals with the facts. From finance, we can use the data to show whether something is successful or not."
Combine external data with proprietary forecast for one sales schedule
The forecast is fact-based and very detailed. A significant part of this data comes from external parties. In turn, part of the forecast is shared with another external party. This fits with Lucas Bols' organizational model: "Only in the US do we have our own subsidiary, and in the Netherlands a joint venture where we own 50%. The rest is external: production is outsourced and for each market there is a distributor," Eric explains. "We compare the forecast of the 100 external distributors with the forecast of our commercial team. Then we translate the results into a sales planning for the external production party."
Processing the data from so many external parties means quite a lot: "The 100 different distributors also supply their data in 100 different formats. We then convert that into one sales planning in Oracle PBC," says Timo van Leeuwen. As a consultant and trusted advisor from Finext, Timo has been involved in the planning process at Lucas Bols for about 13 years.
From private equity owner to IPO
Since 2015, Lucas Bols has been publicly traded. The period before that, the organization has had various owners; it was part of Remy Cointreau for several years, and after a management buyout in 2006, it acquired a private equity party as a shareholder.
Eric sees clear distinctions between the information needs of a private equity party or a listed environment. "Where private equity is mostly about ROI, shareholders also want to see the quality of earnings, and whether it's in line with strategy. You need more detail for that."
So the IPO is one of the reasons for moving from Oracle Essbase to Oracle PBC. "We wanted to be able to provide more insight into where growth is coming from; which brands are doing well and which markets? The emphasis will be on financial reporting and the insights you get from that."
Innovative with Oracle PBC, FCC and ERP
Not only in terms of product development and business model is the international beverage company innovative. The organization also likes to be at the forefront in terms of control and financial systems. A few years ago, for example, Lucas Bols was one of the first organizations in the Netherlands with Oracle PBC.
In addition, Oracle Financial Consolidation & Close (FCC) and Cloud ERP are also currently being implemented. "It's dangerous when companies have many different packages that they get data from," Eric states. "I believe you have to choose one system so you have one 1 source where you capture as much as possible. Then you don't spend time around connecting all the differences."
Backup for multiple days with Swap Automate
Oracle cloud solutions' standard backup stores only one day. Reason for Lucas Bols to install Swap Automate. "When there are so many people working in PBC, there's a greater chance that a mistake will be made. It's important then that you can restore it immediately," Eric says.
This backup functionality was developed by Swap Support, a sister organization of Finext specializing in management, to enable multi-day backups in Oracle cloud solutions as well.
In fact, errors are often not discovered until a few days later. "We found that out the 'hard way'" explains Eric. "At the time, we had to work with a manual backup that was already a few weeks old. It was a 'no brainer' for us to install Swap Automate as soon as we heard it existed."
"Instead of discussions about the calculations, there are now questions about the details. The quality of conversations goes up with that."
Faster and better forecasts with Oracle PBC
Eric is positive about the new planning model in Oracle PBC. "The big advantage is that you can calculate the scenarios much faster. Within an hour I know the consequences of something we see happening outside. Previously it took us 1 to 2 days to do that, and we had to do a lot more manual calculation."
The quality of the forecast has also improved. "Instead of discussions about the calculations, there are now questions about the details. The conversations are more about the content than the process. As a result, the quality goes up."
Fully automated sales planning
Eric is constantly working to further optimize the planning process step by step. "Besides trends on volumes, I also want trend planning around prices: which flavors are doing well, and what are the consequences for our margins. I also want to add more external sources, for example around consumer behavior. My ultimate goal is a fully automated forecast, where the trend measurements are already in there."
