Orlando, FL – N2N Global, a leader in agribusiness software solutions, is celebrating its 20 year alliance with Washington Fruit and Produce Company, a marquee grower, packer, shipper, and sales agency at the heart of the Washington apple industry.
Beginning in 1990, N2N Global began working with Washington Fruit on an ambitious plan to assist accounting in making sure the financial management of the company would be handled in a clear and concise fashion. After "GoLive" in 1991, the relationship evolved with inclusion of operations, production, and inventory management. Today, after 20 years of partnership, Washington Fruit & Produce has grown over three times its size from 1991 and feels that it has room to grow even more with the N2N global Agri-ERP system and its new functions.
"N2N Global has partnered with us at Washington Fruit and has brought their experience and expertise to the table to help ensure we are the leader in our industry in all areas, especially food safety and traceability," stated Bryan Mains, Controller for Washington Fruit & Produce.
Washington Fruit, based in Yakima, Washington, was incorporated in 1916 to grow, pack, and ship tree fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, and peaches from the Yakima Valley. By the early 1970's they decided to focus their energies on apples, pears, and cherries only.
Today the Washington Fruit & Produce Company is still family owned and operated by its fourth generation of family members. Under the Independent label, Washington Fruit farms apples, pears, cherries, and wine grapes throughout Eastern Washington and Northern Oregon and supplies produce to some of the world's largest retail brands. Washington Fruit's long and successful history is based on a commitment to quality, integrity, and hard work each day.
The partnership between N2N Global and Washington Fruit began 20 years ago when Washington Fruit needed additional accounting support. The relationship has grown as Washington Fruit's needs have grown and evolved. N2N Global is now deeply involved in Washington Fruit's production, warehouse, and supply chain management.
Most recently, the owners of Washington Fruit had a vision for the apple industry of the future. The executive team's belief was that food safety and traceability would be more critical and buyers would be more demanding about fruit quality. With that in mind, the company began planning years in advance. The company's new $30-million apple packing facility (where the video is being filmed) in Yakima, Washington, is designed to address these issues and more. The River Road facility is one of the largest and most advanced packing lines in the world today.
The new plant is a third larger than Washington Fruit's former apple packing facility located on First Avenue in Yakima. River Road will be able to accommodate more apples from the company's young apple orchards in the Columbia Basin that are starting to come into production. It can handle about 400,000 bins (or 7 million boxes) of apples annually. Two-thirds of the apples the company packs come from its own orchards. Though the former packing facility was just 18 years old, the owners decided they wanted to offer their clients the most advanced technology in packing, food safety, traceability, and employee welfare for in their industry.
Washington Fruit approached N2N Global about additional traceability solutions in 2010. With N2N Global's software suite, Washington Fruit now tracks each case of produce with a unique identifier all the way from the field to the warehouse and store.
"About a year in advance of that opening we planned together how the processes would work, how we would integrate our software with their processes. We also worked with other vendors of Washington Fruit to ensure that systems they had already worked as a very seamless solution, Paymard said."
Washington Fruit's Controller, Bryan Mains, credits his company's positive relationship with N2N Global as the reason Washington Fruit is the industry leader in food traceability. By helping Washington Fruit maintain a consistent product and allowing them to trace and track the fruit through their warehouse and supply chain, they maintain a leading edge system for the industry.
"We can track packing and quality and statistics using N2N Global software as we pack the fruit. In the 20 years we've been with N2N Global, our business has grown three and four fold and they have been able to grow with us." Mains said.
Paymard says the success of N2N Global is its ability to work as partners with its clients in every step of the planning process. This also means long term relationships that are decades strong.
"I think partnering with our clients, working with them to understand their business objectives, understanding their processes and making sure they are matched in our software, I think that's the hinge of our success with clients," says Paymard.
About N2N Global
N2N Global began operations in 1983 and brings powerful solutions for all members of the food supply chain. For Supply Side companies, N2N Global offers a comprehensive suite of products including agri-ERP solutions, farm management, food safety, business analytics and traceability. For buy side companies, N2N Global offers its food safety and traceability platform which includes food safety management, audit and compliance oversight, asset tracking, recall management, and category, menu, and ingredient management.
N2N Global provides comprehensive solutions for companies looking for ways to improve efficiencies, enhance profitability, and ensure food safety. To contact Angela Paymard directly, visit her on N2N's twitter page www.twitter.com/n2nglobal. For more information, please visit www.n2nglobal.com.
Source: N2N Global
