Arthur Chatwins is a renowned bakery chain with twenty-four bakery and café stores across Cheshire, Staffordshire, and North Wales, with a central bakery in Nantwich. In the highly competitive food manufacturing industry, efficient, cost-effective procurement processes are essential to ensure timely delivery of products.
Using Arrow’s previous e-commerce platform, Arthur Chatwins were unable to fully lock down the products each site could order, leading to inefficiencies across their procurement process (with every order having to be manually checked before placing).
Implementation of ARROW CONNECT, Arrow’s new web-based online portal, transformed their procurement process, enhancing efficiency and control across Arthur Chatwins’ stores.
The Retail Training & Compliance Manager at Chatwins explains:
“Ordering janitorial products across our retail stores was initially challenging. For example, on the website it was possible for our Store Managers to order a variety of chemicals and items within each category, making it difficult to enforce limitations, COSHH compliance, and pricing regulation. This led to the necessity of checking each order for accuracy and pricing. Furthermore, restricted lists created on the website were prone to failure, with sites able to delete or amend these, causing great disruption to other sites using the same restricted list.”
To solve these issues, Chatwins was an early adopter of ARROW CONNECT, Arrow’s exclusive online portal, bespoke-built by Arrow to streamline and enhance customer procurement processes. ARROW CONNECT offered Chatwins a range of innovative features such as customisable, site-specific product lists, integrated approval workflows, and inbuilt management reporting – providing an intuitive user experience, whilst empowering general managers through a fully-controlled ordering process.
Reaping the Benefits of ARROW CONNECT
Implementing ARROW CONNECT has revolutionised Chatwins’ janitorial procurement process, delivering quantifiable improvements in efficiency, control, and user experience.
Easy to set up, and requiring minimal user training, the portal has ensured 100% product compliance across all individual stores. By using ARROW CONNECT, Chatwins’ stores managers can order in minutes, with the confidence that the correct products are being ordered across the Chatwins network.
Enhanced User Experience
Stores managers found ARROW CONNECT to be exceptionally user-friendly, akin to popular e-commerce platforms like Amazon®. The intuitive system has simplified their ordering process, reducing the likelihood of errors and increasing confidence in product selection.
Streamlined Procurement
ARROW CONNECT’s integrated approval workflows and customisable product lists allowed procurement managers to control exactly what each site purchased, without manual intervention.
Improved Data Accessibility
ARROW CONNECT’s live reporting dashboard empowered managers at all levels to make informed procurement decisions based on real-time usage data and analytics. The centralised platform allowed Chatwins to easily monitor ordering trends across multiple delivery addresses, enabling proactive inventory management and cost control.
Customisation and Control
The ability to set individualised product lists for each retail store ensured consistency and compliant product selection across every site. These integrated restrictions prevented unauthorised purchases, mitigating the risk of stock discrepancies, and ensuring 100% compliance with their approved contract list.
"I can confidently say implementation of ARROW CONNECT has transformed the way we purchase and manage our janitorial products.
ARROW CONNECT has not only simplified our procurement process but also provided us with valuable insights and full control of product selection.
It's a game-changer for us."
