Customer: Hellers
Country: NZ
Industry: Food
Business Distributors Limited (BDL) is a family owner and operated company serving businesses of all sizes in New Zealand since 1973.
Proudly partnering with Toshiba, their dealership is based in Christchurch with offices around New Zealand. They are a dynamic provider of technology solutions and aim to revolutionise the way their customers do business to increase productivity.
THE CLIENT
Hellers is a New Zealand owned and operated butcher and small goods supplier, with major factories in Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch, and Auckland.
They have between 400 and 680 employees, dependant on the time of year, and lease additional storage and temporary shop space for the peak production seasons.
Born out of family tradition and built from humble beginnings, today Hellers staff can produce up to 350 tonnes of sausages of 80 different varieties a week, along with bacon, ham, and other service deli small goods.
THE CHALLENGE
In the past, Hellers had bought label printers and laser printers required for their factory operations out-right, and paid additional feeds to a service provider for support and maintenance of the fleet.
Dominic Stove, IT Manager at Hellers, explained that the physical working environment at their factories pose many challenges to print productivity.
“Hellers factories are a cold, high moisture and high salinity environment, which is not ideal for the operation of laser printers and our product label printers. It results in damp paper and rusting of devices. Constant operation also leads to overheating under the stress of production,” said Dominic.
Staffing at Hellers fluctuates throughout the year for the seasonal peaks and troughs, according to market requirements. This means that during the peak production periods, there are between 150 and 200 temporary staff members working with the printers, who are not familiar with the devices and the environment, resulting in more frequent errors and downtime.
At these peak times we really need to be operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to meet deadlines.
“At these peak times we really need to be operating 24 hours a day, 7 days a week in order to meet deadlines,” said Dominic.
On top of this, they need to operate in a “food safe” environment at all times. This creates a unique requirement in terms of ongoing maintenance of the devices. During peak times, Hellers had significant bills relating to service and support of their print fleet. Down-time was also costing time and money, and the value of the printers they owned was depreciating rapidly. BDL had been supplying and managing the multifunction devices (MFD’s) for the office at Hellers for some time when they offered to come up with a tailored, managed solution for their laser and label printer requirements at the factories.
BDL conducted a full audit on the Hellers fleet to better understand their complex requirements and ongoing needs, before putting forward their proposal.
Hellers went to market and received tenders from three other suppliers to ensure they were making the best decision for their business.
THE SOLUTION
BDL proposed to replace the entire print fleet at Hellers with new and faster devices, including leading-edge Toshiba label printers. The devices would be provided as a managed service on one contract, with a single, fixed monthly bill for all devices, servicing, and support.
The proposal provided a number of extra devices to be stored, allowing printers to be immediately swapped out when issues arise, to almost eliminate down-time.
“The idea that we would be able to swap a device over with one of our ”spares” immediately when one went down really appealed to us. The strong existing business relationship we had with BDL through our MFD fleet obviously helped our decision making. However, ultimately they were able to offer the best solution for our label printer requirements, because of the technology and their in-house service team,” said Dominic.
The Results
If we ever need technical support, one phone call sorts the problem out quickly and we are no longer being billed large amounts for call outs during peak periods, as it is included in our agreement.
Hellers have been able to reduce expenditure on their print fleet and related servicing through a Toshiba Managed Service with BSL. A single, fixed monthly bill makes accounting a breeze and the one point of contact for service and support makes solving issues more efficient.
“The streamlined billing and servicing has made life much easier. Most importantly, we are now experiencing much less down-time, which means we are meeting our deadlines. We always need to be working, and now we are,” said Dominic
Hellers are more satisfied with the service and support they receive if complex issues arise.
“If we ever need technical support, one phone call sorts the problem out quickly and we are no longer being billed large amounts for call outs during peak periods, as it is included in our agreement,” said Dominic.
The Outlook
Hellers are confident that BDL can continue to meet their business requirements and envisage maintaining a long-term working relationship. They are delighted that the BDL team know their business well and that there is no longer a need to explain complex issues to a new technician when support is required, as with past providers. “BDL has taken the time to understand our business; the whole team know our work environment very well. Whenever we need support, there are no explanations required and they are always able to get things moving in a timely fashion. I would not hesitate to recommend BDL to businesses with similar complex requirements,” concluded Dominic.
Hellers Case Study
Hellers
67 Main N Rd
Kaiapoi 7691
New Zealand
Telephone
+64 3-375 5017
Website
www.hellers.co.nz
