Lecocq Flavours digitises with CCE's Lisa ERP

Lecocq Flavours know what they are doing: with more than 100 years of experience, this Limburg-based food and beverage flavourings company is active worldwide. Thanks to Lisa, the ERP package from Claerhout Computer Engineering (CCE), the future is also assured with streamlined and efficient operations.

Something for everyone

If you need an aroma for your food product, there is a very good chance Lecocq Flavours has it. With recipes for more than 12,000 different flavourings, they have a solution for every flavour profile. And if you are still looking for something more exotic? No problem, the family-owned company not only continues to develop new flavours, but also pushes hard for co-creation. They work closely on the development with the customer until the flavour is completely on point. Of course, discretion is a must here.

Needless to say: Lecocq Flavours not only has a rich past - with its origins in the gin industry and now led by the fourth generation: Olivier Lecocq - but the company also continues to innovate. For this it has its own R&D department. "Over the past few years, we have made significant strides with our lab and R&D department. In doing so, we are increasingly betting on market-driven development. Expertise, speed, customisation and co-creation are our strengths," states co-CEO Eveline Sticker. The result is a global player that has grown particularly strongly in recent years and consequently doubled its staff.

The enterprising couple, Eveline Sticker and Olivier Lecocq, jointly run the family business Lecocq Flavours, a specialist in flavourings for food and beverages

Thoughtful digitisation

High ambitions then, and that is precisely why an efficiency drive was required to keep up with growth. Indeed, there was a lot of potential here to improve production. "We have made a strong commitment to digitisation in recent years. We looked at what could be improved upon and what we could outsource, such as accounting and personnel administration. As for the organisation of production and stocks, we used an old custom-made programme that was difficult to adapt. We saw that the company had outgrown the software, making it a constraint rather than an incentive," Eveline points out.

The old system was unable to communicate with other software or services, and it was not even possible to export the necessary data and reports; this always had to be done through an external partner. Moreover, the supplier in question had indicated its unwillingness to grow with Lecocq Flavours and their ambitions.

Effective approach with Lisa ERP software

Eveline had clear criteria in mind when looking for a new partner: a future-proof programme that can work flexibly and efficiently, connect to other software, and preferably be paperless. All these features came together in Lisa, Claerhout Computer Engineering's ERP package.

Pragmatic thinking

Perhaps the most important factor was the will to think and grow with them: "I noticed from the first appointment that CCE was excited to see how their software could make our lives easier. After all, every company is unique, and producing flavourings is not very common either. This made Lecocq Flavours a challenge for CCE in a way, but one they were happy to take on," said Eveline.

Smooth start-up

CCE therefore proceeded thoroughly. Over several meetings they developed clear ideas and suggestions on how to configure and implement the software. This preliminary process ensured Lisa was on point when the system finally had to be commissioned. The start-up therefore went extremely smoothly and took only two days in itself, with production and administration never disrupted.