Vermeulen & Den Otter – supplier of bread- and banquet products to canteens, restaurants, catering, amusement parks and colleague bakers – recently started with TellApe, the packaging app and online packaging platform. Vermeulen & Den Otter delivers hundreds of customers their products. This is transported in Broban bread crates and metal trolley’s, on a daily basis. The reason for Vermeulen & Den Otter to start with TellApe was the challenge they faced with the registration and management of the Broban crates and trolley’s. Broban crates have disappeared from customers. Their customers are also supplied by other suppliers, and by customers that uses the bread crates for other purposes such as the storage of goods. Mike Vermeulen says: ‘’TellApe brings awareness to our drivers and customers. Such as the need for proper packaging registration and the enormous amount of money that flows in the packaging world.’’
An important starting point for Vermeulen & Den Otter is that the customers knows that TellApe is a tool for gaining insight in packaging transactions and packaging balances, without extra costs for the customer. In the meantime, there are already several customers of Vermeulen & Den Otter who are aware of the fact that packaging also disappears at their workplace.
Vermeulen & Den Otter
Vermeulen & Den Otter consists of a bread bakery which is located in Vlijmen and a confectionery which is located in Vught. There are 3 shops of Vermeulen & Den Otter: Vlijmen, Vught and Den Bosch. They sell in all shops their own freshly baked bread, banquet and fair trade products from their own chocolate atelier. The company of Vermeulen & Den Otter live up to quality on the highest level, whether it concerns products, service or flexibility. They believe that working with daily fresh products with honest raw materials is very important. All products are prepared with the ultimate care to let the customer enjoy! Registering, monitoring and managing the packaging stock is the responsibility of Roland Dammers and Mike Vermeulen.
Bread crates challenge
‘’For transporting our bread products we use the Broban bread crates and the corresponding metal trolley. We use the pastry box for transporting the banquet products. Before we came in contact with TellApe, we had been aware of the packaging problems for years’’ – explains Roland Dammers. ‘’The biggest problem we experienced was losing the packaging, especially the bread crates. Bread crates are mainly lost at customers who deal with other suppliers, or at customers where bread crates are used for other purposes.’’ Within the Vermeulen & Den Otter company, few employees where aware of the fact that bread crates could easily be lost. The realization that packaging was lost did not come until the moment that new bread crates had to be bought.
Mike explains: “Before we started working with TellApe, it was difficult to understand how much packaging was unloaded at customers and how much packaging came back, for us and for the customer. Because the bread crates are often unloaded at night, and you therefore have no ‘proof’ by a signature for the packaging transaction, you can’t charge the lost packaging. With TellApe you get insight into where the ” leaks ” are for losing the packaging. ”
The solution!
To solve the packaging problem at Vermeulen & Den Otter, they went looking for a suitable solutions. Roland Dammers had even contacted an application builder. If no suitable standard solution could be found. Roland wanted to work with an app builder himself if necessary, to follow the bread crates and trolley’s. However, building an application is quite an investment, so for now Roland searched for an alternative. After an intensive online search Vermeulen & Den Otter ended up at TellApe.
The choice for a free 14-day pilot was made very quickly. Roland contacted TellApe to start the pilot. Roland explains: ‘’I have been served very well and quickly. The only downside of TellApe for us is that the application now only runs on Android. Fortunately, I received a free CAT Smartphone pilot for the test month! After digitally submitting the correct master data, I was able to start testing TellApe in practice within one hour. The TellApe app and platform in combination with the CAT Smartphone have given us so much pleasure so we immediately wanted to became a customer of TellApe.’’
The use of TellApe
‘’We have been using TellApe for a few months now. The biggest advantage of this app is that you can quickly and easily see where your packaging is located. With TellApe the awareness arises among our drivers and customers about the packaging. They are also aware of the need for proper packaging registration and the enormous amounts of money that flows in the packaging world.’’ – explains Mike Vermeulen. An important point for Vermeulen & Den Otter is that the customer knows that TellApe is a tool for gaining insight in packaging transactions and packaging balances.
All this insight delivered without extra costs for the customers. Mike: ‘’Our customers have not yet become a TellApe customer, but are now more aware of the packaging flows and have improve their own control on packaging. The packaging flows in the entire chain has become more visible with the help of TellApe. Eeveryone gets better in packaging!’’ TellApe reduces the discussion afterwards with customers about packaging transactions and balances. TellApe provides insight into where packaging is lost.
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Mike: ‘With the use of TellApe, it is no longer necessary to buy large quantities of bread crates every year. In addition, we now have easy and clear insight into the packaging balances of our customers. Especially in the busy months of the year this is a big profit. Our customers temporary kept our packaging behind for personal use. With TellApe we know where our packaging is and can pick it up when needed. In short, in the few months that we use TellApe, we have our investment in TellApe back by reduce the lost of bread crates!’’
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