Today, looking after your lunch can also mean looking after the planet. That’s what motivated family business Grant Studios to form KARRICO Inc. – a shining example of Australian innovation and product leadership using a novel business model to get their products around the world.
The core of KARRICO’s work is stylish bento boxes and reusable lunch bags, which are ethically sourced and supported by BioCote® antimicrobial protection against stains and odors caused by bacteria or mold.
But the goal of expanding into the U.S. market – while remaining Australia based – meant KARRICO had to take a fresh approach; one that embraced e-commerce, 3PL and a custom integrated ERP solution that would allow them to work across fulfillment centers in multiple countries and across multiple time zones. And they needed a technology partner who could help them deliver it.
As a product development company, KARRICO is great at making world-class products – but their business model also means that they don’t need to directly manage stock or logistics themselves. Instead, products are manufactured and shipped directly to customers, eliminating unnecessary warehousing and handling.
As Julian Grant, GM of Commercial Operations for Grant Studios explains, “We were moving into a business in the U.S., where we had to manage stock, forecast demand and replenish inventory, all while being in a completely different market with a completely different time zone to the market that we’re selling in. We needed an impressive 3PL and a sophisticated logistics system.”
“We wanted to make sure that there was as much automation and ease of use in the workflow so that we didn’t add any stress to our existing staff, or have to increase our headcount.”
It’s a thoroughly modern approach to operations, and one that might not have been possible five years ago – but also evidence of KARRICO’s approach to innovation. It’s an untapped model, and a lot of businesses are starting to explore this territory – but KARRICO were well ahead of the curve.
“This decision thinking came about right at the start of Covid,” says Julian. “We knew we wanted to start a business in the U.S., and we wanted to be on Amazon. Literally the day after I flew in from the U.S. having visited the 3PL that was going to hold our stock, Covid had started to hit Italy. Within five days of landing, my father got really sick, and he’s the owner.”
“He ended up in quarantine, during those early days of Covid. To visit him, I had to see him in a full biohazard suit. I sat with him – he was fine – sketching out the business model, connecting Amazon, warehouses, and software that linked it all. I said, ‘This is how we’re going to get it done.’ It was at that point that I started making inquiries and found SMB Consultants.”
KARRICO needed to manage sales from Amazon, satisfying and fulfilling inventory and the stockholding requirements from both channels. This was on top of tracking and managing a diverse bill of materials that included the BioCote® antimicrobial treatment on all KARRICO products – something that needed to be calculated with accuracy, since the stock is an expensive point of difference for the brand.
According to Julian, approaching this model at scale – and succeeding – meant getting three things right.
First, Amazon is driven by performance measures, KPIs, and fulfillment. “If you’re not good at fulfillment on Amazon, you can get into trouble,” he says. “You can lose your rank position, and come under all sorts of restrictions on the platform. You need to have a really, really good fulfillment model.”
Second, this approach was still new, and especially so to the Grant Studios and KARRICO team. They were entering poorly-chartered territory, but with the conviction that they would achieve great things.
And third, they needed to take on that workload and minimize its impact on the existing staff. “There was no chance that we’d have any success unless we had the right processes and methodologies to make that work. Otherwise you’d end up creating more work manually. Our staff were completely inundated with their current jobs, and then we were starting a completely new business overseas.”
Those three motivations guided KARRICO’s search for a technology partner to help them through the process of creating a new ERP solution.
“When I discovered SMB Consultants, it was just a relief to know that there was someone out there who could take us through that process.”
Once Grant Studios started conversations with SMB Consultants for the KARRICO brand, they knew they were on the right track. After careful scoping and discovery sessions, SMB recommended Cin7 Omni as the ideal inventory management for the business.
“We didn’t know what we didn’t know,” says Julian. “SMB Consultants took us through hours of discovery meetings to uncover a lot of our requirements. Many of them we didn’t even understand that we had, or were even aware that these would be potential issues.”
“The fact that they led us through that process and made us aware of these potential pitfalls and challenges and helped navigate us through the best way to achieve what we were trying to achieve through the software, and to help us to configure those workflows, that was critical to us.”
The software is also designed to calculate diverse costs with more ease. With it, they can generate precise figures for freight costs and volumes, even when products are mixed in shipping containers – something that was especially important during the shipping container crisis in 2022, and which continues to allow KARRICO to make accurate business decisions with real-time, granular data.
And while Cin7 Omni itself is important and powerful, it’s the implementation and tailoring to an organization’s workflow that proves critical to its success.
With a custom Cin7 Omni integration, KARRICO can operate with a centralized hub, transferring stock to different fulfillment centers and get live stock updates, and more. This way, they can manage the business remotely from Australia, and be fast asleep while the warehouse is running in the U.S.
“Having really sophisticated software and being able to basically key orders directly from Australia in our own time, and manage all branch transfers and workflows, is absolutely critical, since we don’t have a lot of crossover time with our fulfillment centers and with our warehouse.”
“The solution that we’ve created within Cin7 Omni literally allows me to sleep,” says Julian.
A new business model has come with a new series of challenges, yet together KARRICO and SMB have been able to approach it without adding unnecessary overheads to the new business.
“If we were to do it ourselves – which I think would be madness – we wouldn’t get the right result; the system wouldn’t do what we wanted it to do. Plus, it would take an inordinate amount of time, and delay our time to market substantially.”
“Every step of the way through the journey, whenever we’ve had issues or raised concerns about the way that we need to operate the business, SMB Consultants have always gone back. They’ve investigated our issues and found a way through, whether it was some sort of customization or adaptation of the workflows to help us achieve our aim.”
With quarterly reviews, KARRICO is moving into a new phase where they can continually optimize their operations and find new areas for improvement.
“To stay competitive in this business, you need to have a sophisticated supply chain – especially if you’re wanting an omnichannel e-commerce approach. SMB Consultants and Cin7 Omni help us stay on top of all the latest advances in fulfillment technology, and keep us on top of delivering the best for our customers.”
Jeff agrees, adding that the process was exciting for SMB Consultants too. “We recognized that Julian was already forward-thinking in the direction of where he wanted to start his business. I think what worked for this partnership is that we worked through these issues together. We combined his vision and the direction he wanted to take his business with our experience with the software. We bounced ideas off each other.”
“There were definitely challenges and roadblocks along the way, so to have a process in place and to have the right mindset of how we work off of each other is what really made this successful. And as Julian starts to acquire more experience using the system, and more knowledge about the industry, the solution and partnership will only get stronger.”
Put simply, the Cin7 Omni solution and partnership with SMB Consultants is what enabled KARRICO to grow.
“If we didn’t have this system, we wouldn’t be able to scale,” says Julian.
“As we continue to drive our marketing campaigns and efforts, the system that SMB Consultants have put in place has given us the capability to scale. To us it's almost seamless. This has given us the confidence to scale, and not to worry about whether we'll be able to handle the growth.”
With a solution that provides a good understanding of delivery and fulfillment, KARRICO can maximize their supply chain and margins, and automate their operations for less stress and better results.
“Because the workflow had to deal with lots of different elements to that calculation like customs duties and tariffs, but also at the same time managing the volumetric size of the products that we were shipping and factoring that into the calculation, we were asking a lot. To have that expert knowledge from SMB Consultants to design that workflow has been incredible,” explains Julian.
“Cin7 Omni is so sophisticated that you need a partner that’s going to help take you through the myriad of options that the system offers, and optimize your workflows and optimize that experience and optimize the goals and the value that you’re going to get out of that system, and that’s where SMB Consultants comes in.”
GM Commercial Operations, Grant Studios
Founder, SMB Consultants
Project Manager, SMB Consultants
Xero Integration Specialist, SMB Consultants
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