Gaia Herbs Selects IFS Applications to Achieve 25% Month-end Efficiency Savings

LINKÖPING, Sweden, November 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IFS, the global enterprise applications company, announces that Gaia Herbs®, a leading organic herbal supplement brand, will implement IFS Applications for enterprise resource planning (ERP). IFS was selected for its expertise in the process manufacturing industry and ability to execute against key business efficiencies.

Gaia will replace two disparate ERP systems, driving improvements including:

• A 25 percent reduction in time spent on month-end and year-end financial reconciliation.

• A reduction of between 80 and 100 hours per week in manual work to populate data in the company's "MeetYourHerbs®" web portal, which provides customers visibility into the supply chain and product origins.

• Actual costing, which can be a challenge for some ERP systems because raw materials often go into an intermediate-stage liquid that is then used in several different products.

• Electronic records batch validation to streamline FDA compliance efforts.

• Sales and operations planning (S&OP) capabilities to balance productive capacity with impending demand.

Gaia values transparency of its supply chain because it gives customers confidence in the contents of the products they buy. Already, the company's web portal lets end users enter a product code and view detailed seed-to-shelf information on the origin, processing date and potency test results for their specific batch of herbs.

"It is important for us to ensure our customers can trace their end product all the way back to its source, including all of the related test results," Gaia Technical Project Manager Jason Phillips said. "We are delivering this service to our customers now through manual processes that will not easily scale as we continue to grow as a company. As we prepare for substantial growth, we need a more scalable, automated approach. IFS Applications will deliver this automation to us, and also enable us to add new data points to the "MeetYourHerbs®" portal, like the name of the operator on a given manufacturing batch, and more. As we grow, rather than become distant from our customer, we want to use technology to pull our customers closer."

IFS Vice President of Sales for North America Katherine James added, "At IFS, we applaud Gaia's efforts to not only meet regulatory requirements for traceability, but to exceed customer expectations for visibility into the origins and purity of their products. We are honored to help them maintain this high-tech approach as they grow, and to help them drive leaner administrative processes and greater alignment between sales projections and production."

About Gaia Herbs

Gaia Herbs is the leading herbal brand in North America with more than 200 liquid extracts, functional powders, teas, and patented Liquid Phyto-Caps™. We cultivate health and well-being by stewarding sustainable relationships between plants and people. And our steadfast dedication to quality and integrity is unparalleled and meticulously proven by science, including pioneering DNA validation models for each herb. We use only organic methods to cultivate more than 6.5 million plants each year on our farms in the US and Costa Rica and that same organic approach continues through manufacture using patented technology to achieve the highest efficacy of each herb, validated by our scientists throughout the process. This method of purity, integrity, and potency and our seed to shelf commitment ensures the highest quality and allows us to share complete transparency through MeetYourHerbs®, the industry's only traceability program. Our desire to nurture healthy connections with nature extends beyond our herbs through GaiaCares, which champions environmental and social sustainability on our farm and worldwide. For more information, visit: www.gaiaherbs.com/

CONTACT:

Laura Zadravetz, Director of Marketing Communications, IFS North America. Phone: 1 (262) 717-6591, [email protected]

Chuck Rathmann, Senior Marketing Communications Analyst, IFS North America.Phone: 1 (262) 317-7419, [email protected]

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SOURCE IFS