The Austrian company Vereinigte Fettwarenindustrie GmbH (VFI for short) is very familiar with a product that is "refined" in both senses of the word: the roots of the producer of edible oils made from vegetable raw materials go back to the 19th century. The merger of three edible oil producers in 1972 created the current Austrian market leader with its headquarters in Wels.
Since Austria's accession to the European Union twenty years ago, the shareholders have been investing intensively in modernizing the company, not only to serve international markets more effectively but also to stand up to the competition from neighboring countries through product and process quality. With the traditional brands Kronenöl, Bona and Ceres as a basis and a large number of own brands and co-packing customers, this has so far been successful.
In the last few years, it has been one blow after another
New filling machines, expansion of the high-bay warehouse, modernization of the refinery, an in-house combined heat and power plant, and finally the construction of the new plant building with integrated special tank farm, laboratory, canteen, and office are the milestones of the development to date. The result is a well-oiled machine.
After all, the introduction of the GUS-OS Suite also involved the realignment of business processes in all areas of the company. In the process, almost all processes were rethought and modeled from scratch. With the modernization of the internal infrastructure, VFI also created the prerequisites for reaching new market segments through additional products, internationalization of sales markets and, above all, higher efficiency in manufacturing.
The result can be seen
With a total turnover of more than 150 million euros and sales of more than 110,000 tons of oils and fats, VFI today achieves an export share of more than 40 percent.
As a prerequisite for the introduction of GUS-OS Suite, it was necessary to map the entire production chain: the freshly pressed raw products, which are delivered by the producer and often regionally located oil mills, arrive as crude oil at the tank farms at VFI and from there to the refinery. The subsequent production steps - degumming, deacidification, bleaching, and steaming - take place in Wels, where massive investments in the refinery conversion have largely automated the processes and thus accelerated the workflows.
VFI produces around two dozen different types of oil in this way. Planning of production and sales is done with the GUS-OS Suite. In addition to rapeseed and sunflower oil, the product portfolio of Vereinigte Fettwarenindustrie also includes corn oil, safflower oil, peanut oil, palm oil and palm oil as well as coconut oil, along with numerous organic products and raw materials of regional origin. Combined with the large number of packaging variants - from the 0.25-liter glass bottle to the 10-liter plastic bucket to the 1,000-liter pallet tank and the tanker truck - this results in a large number of product variants that are planned, scheduled, produced and sold.
Prepared for tomorrow's challenges with the GUS-OS Suite
This makes VFI the leading supplier for food retailers and industrial companies in Austria as well as for many partners within and outside the European Union. The associated framework agreements are mapped and managed in the GUS-OS Suite in just as much detail as the resulting supply relationships with retail chains, wholesale warehouses and industrial companies.
Today, the GUS-OS Suite is used in practically all areas of the company - from product development to purchasing, production and quality assurance to sales, as well as in financial accounting and controlling. And if business processes change tomorrow due to new requirements, the GUS-OS Suite is modern and flexible enough to support these changes. As I said: A well-oiled machine.
