Dot Foods keeps operations lean with help from Corcentric

The Business

With a strong focus on trusted values, innovative solutions, and shared growth, Dot Foods has become the nation’s largest food industry redistributor. It’s a major accomplishment for a company that was founded with little more than a station wagon, two rented trucks, and a big dream. But it also means that Dot Foods is always seeking ways to manage the challenges that come with growth and expansion.

Dot Foods partners with 1,100 manufacturers and supplies product in less-than-truckload (LTL) quantities to 4,700 customers in all 50 states and 39 countries. For an organization of this size, simplifying operations and keeping costs down are essential to the company’s success. That’s why, since 2002, Dot Foods has trusted Corcentric’s range of procurement and finance services to support the unique needs of their organization as it evolves.

The Experience

Corcentric’s flexible, “menu-driven” service model enabled Dot Foods to select three service areas that delivered maximum value and impact: product selection, strategic supplier management, and financial process automation.

Product selection

For large organizations, something as simple as the cost of a tire can make a big difference in overall profitability, with seemingly minor savings per unit adding up significantly when multiplied by thousands. In fact, Dot Foods maintains a full-time, dedicated staff to manage tire purchases because it’s such a high-cost area.

In 2002, the company began investigating ways to improve its purchasing strategy. Corcentric was able to help Dot Foods optimize the return on its investment in tires and other business essentials by looking at the lifetime value of these materials and selecting top-tier products in cases where the overall cost of ownership made them a wiser choice. Dot Foods saved money on a range of goods, including tires and retreads, hardware, truck parts and supplies, batteries, cleaners and solvents, and forklift wheels and tires.

Kevin Buss, Director of Fleet Maintenance for Dot Foods, says the value was immediately clear. In spite of their strong supplier networks, Corcentric gave the company better options on a number of key products and offerings. “In a lot of cases it’s not huge per part or per product,” he says. “But when you look at the volume that we do, it starts adding up.”

Strategic supplier management

In addition to finding the best products at the best prices, Corcentric also gave Dot Foods access to greater negotiating power. With the pooled resources of 6,000 organizations, Corcentric can leverage stronger buying power to realize greater savings for each member organization. Corcentric also manages scorecarding, price contracts, and other high-intensity activities involved in the supplier-management process.

Financial process automation

The third component of Dot Foods’ costsaving strategy was the implementation of an efficient, centralized, paperless e-commerce billing and workflow solution. As an organization with multiple locations spread out across the continent, Dot Foods needed to ensure process efficiency that could scale as they continue to grow. Corcentric’s streamlined, automated system helps Dot Foods ensure every location is complying with the purchasing program and buying the right products at the right price.

“Improved consistency in purchasing and pricing across multiple locations is a big deal for us,” says Buss. “Now we have this one source that everyone can access. It gives us consistent products, consistent pricing, consistent invoicing, billing, and purchase prices at every location.”

The Future

Keeping costs manageable and operations at optimal efficiency is paving the way for continued growth and success for Dot Foods.

“We’re soon adding our tenth location from around the country, and this has certainly helped us out,” says Buss, who points to Corcentric’s centralized invoicing and billing as one of the key factors in managing multiple locations more efficiently.

Beyond operational efficiencies, the long-term partnership with Corcentric has also helped Dot Foods set the bar higher – for themselves and the vendors and service partners they work with.

“Working with Corcentric has changed our level of expectations. For example, we now scorecard our equipment suppliers and offer a Vendor of the Year Award. We figure out who our best supplier is and that sets the expectation that we want the others to meet.”