Pietercil Group is one of the largest fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) distributors in Benelux and France. Over 90 brands trust Pietercil’s brokerage, which works every day to make sure that the company’s distribution deals make money for the company and its brand partners.
In this environment, agility is a core ingredient for success. “One challenge we face is the need to be very responsive and proactive,” explains Stéphanie Teetaert, General Manager of Pietercil’s brokerage business. “This means being faster than our competitors and responsive to our partners. This requires planning tools that make data accessible, allow scenario-building, and that support fast decision-making.”
Pietercil has trade agreements with each of its brand partners that determine purchasing volumes and pricing. Brokers regularly review these terms to ensure ongoing profitability. For years, this analysis used thousands of complex spreadsheets. The process was labor-intensive, time consuming, error-prone, and resulted in data silos.
Turning to trusted solutions
To boost distributor efficiency and strike more winning deals, Pietercil set out to move trade terms management to Anaplan. “We already used Anaplan in our supply chain and sales teams, and are already a connected community to Anaplan, so it was logical to leverage our experience with the platform further,” says Teetaert. “Anaplan is very intuitive to use, and enables many people to work with the same data at the same time. That helps us to have constructive discussions and make sound decisions.”
Pietercil enlisted Deloitte to help build a new Anaplan model and connect it with existing supply chain and finance data in Anaplan. “Connectedness means a lot to me and my colleagues,” reflects Teetaert. “When you’re on the same page you have open discussions and create one way of working. In the end, that brings customer centricity into our work.”
Achieving greater visibility
With the new trade terms management solution, Pietercil’s brokerage has faster access to key information when negotiating deals. “With Anaplan, we have deep insights into our profitability,” explains Teetaert. “It helps us during negotiations to really decide where we will invest, in what brand, at what customer. Our people can make better fact-based decisions and create the best value for the company.”
They’re also saving significant time. “We save 20% of the time during the budgeting period just from data entry,” says Teetaert. “That time is used for more analysis, better decisions, and making recommendations to the business. It’s critical to really have good tooling and good planning that makes data very visible, and creates one vision of the truth, and allows us to make fast decisions.”
In the future, the Pietercil team expects that using the Anaplan platform will help it outpace competitors and drive expansion. “What is most exciting to me is to think about growth, about opportunities,” concludes Teetaert. “When I look at Anaplan today, and the opportunities it offers, I’m pretty sure that we will be able to really focus on growth, focus on new ideas, focus on new opportunities.”
