De Kuyper Royal Distillers has taken an important step in renewing its digital foundation. Together with Quinso, the family business chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud, public edition. The new solution replaces a highly modified and outdated ERP environment. With it, De Kuyper increases its agility, streamlines its international operations and lays the foundation for further growth and innovation.
De Kuyper is the world’s largest producer of “cocktail creations” such as cocktail liqueurs and ready to serve cocktails for professional and home use. It is among the oldest family-owned companies in the Netherlands. The company was founded in 1695 and is still owned by the De Kuyper family. From its headquarters in Schiedam, De Kuyper exports its products to more than a hundred countries worldwide.
Positively surprised
Previously, De Kuyper worked with an ERP solution developed in-house with a lot of customization and little contact with the supplier. “Our systems were holding us back,” says Niels Valkenburg, Global Operations Director at De Kuyper. “They were user-unfriendly, inaccessible to new staff and actually in need of replacement for years. We delayed the decision for a long time, but in the end it was untenable.”
With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, De Kuyper now has a modern ERP system that runs entirely on standards. Only for some sector-specific excise processes an extension was developed. The extensions were built in SAP public cloud itself through the capabilities SAP offers in it. “What positively surprised me is that 98 percent of our processes fit into the standard,” Valkenburg said. “We definitely wanted to get rid of customization, and we succeeded.”
Clear choices and tight project management
Together with Quinso, De Kuyper mapped which processes were business-critical. Only those were included in the implementation. Other processes were deliberately left out of the system. “We drew a line: what should be included, what should not? That discipline was essential.”
The implementation process took eight months, including vacations – an exceptionally short period for an ERP transformation. For this, De Kuyper worked with a permanent project team that worked full-time on the project three days a week, supplemented by backfill for day-to-day tasks. “We freed up our most knowledgeable people and set up our own project space for this purpose. This allowed us to really make meters,” Valkenburg says.
Employee engagement as a success factor
The biggest challenge was not in the technology, but in the change approach. “The new way of working meant a considerable change, especially for colleagues who had been working with the old system for years,” says Valkenburg. By involving users from the beginning and paying a lot of attention to training and communication, that resistance was successfully reversed.
Toward the go-live, the rest of the organization was actively involved through end-user training and internal knowledge transfer. “The moment when people themselves noticed that a monthly close suddenly went smoothly was worth its weight in gold. That gave confidence in the new solution.”
Crucial role for data quality
The collaboration with Quinso was essential to the success of the implementation, according to De Kuyper. “We spoke the same language, both business and cultural,” says Valkenburg. “Quinso brought not only technical expertise, but also a pragmatic approach and a keen eye for what works within an organization like ours. Their consultants were physically on site with us from day one, three days a week. That made all the difference: we formed one team.”
The cooperation also played a decisive role in the area of data migration and master data. The transition to SAP S/4HANA meant not only a technical migration, but also a fundamental review of how data are organized and managed within De Kuyper. “We spent an enormous amount of time in advance cleaning up our data. Our old system was full of contamination: duplicate items, outdated parts lists, irrelevant data that had once been created for one-time use,” Valkenburg explains.
Dedication
We also look back on a special project from Quinso. “What made this project unique was the dedication of De Kuyper,” says Mark Kokkeler, Business Consultant at Quinso. “They not only said they would make their most experienced people available, they actually did it. We really operated as one team, with short lines of communication and a lot of mutual trust.”
The choice of SAP S/4HANA Cloud public edition was logical, according to Quinso, given De Kuyper’s ambitions. “For an innovative, international player with growth ambitions, the public cloud fits perfectly. The system is future-oriented, always up-to-date and requires minimal customization. Together we have strictly guarded that standard approach, and that has paid off.”
Grip and ease of use
The benefits of the new ERP environment are now becoming increasingly apparent. Since going live on November 1, there has been an integrated platform for all core processes, including production, inventory management, sales, finance and intercompany transactions between the various BVs and production sites. “The processes now truly form one whole,” Valkenburg notes with satisfaction. “Previously, a lot of coordination by e-mail or in Excel was required. Now everything runs automatically through the system.”
The benefits are noticeable from day one. “Our monthly closings run more smoothly, we have immediate insight into bottlenecks and can intervene faster,” adds Jelle Walboomers, Group CFO. “Information is available unambiguously and in real time. That helps enormously in our daily operations as well as in management decision-making.”
Peace and overview
User convenience has also increased significantly. “Tasks that previously required a lot of manual work are now automated,” Valkenburg said. “That gives peace of mind and overview. Especially younger employees – who are used to modern systems from previous employers – respond very positively to the user-friendliness of SAP.”
The availability of reliable data in one central location also enables further innovation. “We are now building further on our reporting environment and exploring how we can use AI and other advanced capabilities from S/4HANA, for example, for automated analysis and process optimization,” Walboomers concludes.
From gin to cocktails
The renewal of the ERP landscape is part of a broader transformation of De Kuyper. “We have been a family business since 1695 and in those 330 years we have continued to innovate continuously,” says Valkenburg. “Where we once started with gin, our focus is now on quality cocktail creations. We’re all about cocktails, from liqueurs to ready-to-serve cocktails, and that also requires a modern system that grows with us. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we have found that.”
Want to learn more about implementing S/4HANA at De Kuyper? Read this blog about the first step: