From a trading organization to a versatile company with production activities

Luiten Food – Thomas Foods Europe is a family-owned business with a rich history and strong ambitions for growth. In ten years, both employee numbers and turnover have doubled. What once began as a trading organization has evolved into a versatile company now also undertaking production activities. A crucial factor in this success has been a flexible ERP system tailored specifically to the meat industry.

In 1938, Leen Luiten began selling butter, cheese, eggs, and chicken at a market in The Hague, the Netherlands. Three generations later, the company has expanded into an international enterprise specializing in the import, processing, and distribution of beef, poultry, lamb, Ibérico, seafood, and plant-based products.

Luiten Food serves a diverse range of customers, including supermarkets, wholesalers, cruise lines, butchers, and poultry specialists, in over 35 countries. Since 2018, Luiten Food has been part of Thomas Foods International, one of Australia’s largest meat producers

Growth calls for control and insight

In 2011, Luiten Food began looking for a future-oriented ERP solution. The existing system was no longer sufficient, with the company being heavily reliant on numerous Excel sheets. Multiple storage locations resulted in poor inventory visibility. As growth ambitions increased, it became crucial to gain better control of production processes, labelling, and electronic data interchange (EDI).

Luiten Food therefore sought a flexible system that could be customized to the company’s specific needs. Key requirements included complete control over incoming goods, storage, order picking, and full traceability from farm to customer. Insight into margins, sales volumes, shelf-life dates, and inventory levels was also essential. Additionally, the new system needed to provide efficient reporting and analytics at both batch and customer levels, as well as fully support EDI for sales and procurement processes

Implementation driven by a clear vision

Luiten Food has been working with the CSB-System since 2012. The initial implementation was managed by a dedicated internal team of key users, supported by CSB consultants. From the outset, they had a clear vision: optimizing and standardizing processes without restricting the company’s characteristic flexibility.

The system’s flexibility played a decisive role in the selection process. All processes could be tailored to Luiten’s specific requirements. CSB was also selected because of its deep expertise in the meat sector and the availability of standard solutions for integrated EDI, SSCC management, and traceability.

All-in-one system

With the transition to a central ERP system, processes have become significantly more efficient and less error-prone. While trade activities were previously the company’s primary focus, Luiten Food increasingly leverages opportunities to process imported products. These products are cut, labelled, and custom-packaged on five pricing lines.

Thanks to the CSB-System, Luiten Food now has real-time inventory management down to box level and precise product management with batch information and expiry dates. Pricing lines are fully integrated, with extensive automation of labelling and production. EDI connections with dozens of customers and suppliers, built-in statistical functions, and automatic reporting are now standard features of daily operations.

Outlook

“The CSB-System is very flexible and logically structured, making it easy to adapt to changes in processes due to growth or market developments”, says Michael Braumuller, IT Manager at Luiten Food.

Luiten Food continues to focus on further growth, quality, transparency, and sustainability. The company actively invests in knowledge through training and user conferences organized by CSB. Thanks to this close collaboration, Luiten Food is well-prepared for future challenges.