The Client

Thomas Ridley provides a total food service solution to social clubs, pubs, restaurants, care homes, schools, hospitals and more — including an online store that delivers direct to customers. Based in Suffolk, Thomas Ridley serves customers in London, Kent, East Anglia and the Midlands.

The Challenge

As Thomas Ridley grew over the past few years, managing the sheer variety of different rebate types became very difficult. They needed a simple solution that eased the mounting complexity in their rebate programs.

The Solution

Managing Complexity

Over time, the rebates Thomas Ridley managed grew increasingly complex. Using spreadsheets to manage these programs became difficult and unwieldy. Scott Mealing, Controller, said, “Utilizing spreadsheets was slow and cumbersome. They opened us up to opportunities for error.”

Knowing they needed a better solution, Mealing created a database that linked to their in-house finance system. This worked for a time, but Mealing knew the team needed a better, more robust, long-term solution.

“I found an article about Enable online and thought maybe this was the solution we wanted,” said Mealing. During a meeting with the Enable team, he laid out all the different complexities and types of rebates he and his team worked with — and Enable rose to the challenge. “Enable showed us they could handle our complex rebate programs,” Mealing said. “Not only that, but they proved they have a history of managing complex programs. I felt very confident going with Enable.”

Critical Components

For Mike Dube, System Finance Commercial Director at Thomas Ridley, any rebate solution would need to provide three things:

1. Transparency

2. Data integrity

3. Single source of truth

Dube knew the ideal solution would give them a clear picture of what agreements were in place, taking information out of people’s heads and putting it on screen. “We needed clarity so we could see what’s happening within the business with confidence,” he said.

He also wanted to ensure that data moving through the business was accurate. That meant the data remained consistent from team to team and enabled them to forecast. “With Enable, we can see what targets we need to achieve to reach certain levels of income,” he said.

“Moving to a system like Enable means we don’t need to spend excess time digging up information. Everything is within one system. That’s key.” —Mike Dube, System FInance Commercial Director, Thomas Ridley

Maximizing Rebates with Increased Clarity

The team at Thomas Ridley wanted greater clarity for their trading team. They wanted to ensure the trading team knew what programs were active and have a complete picture of those programs. With Enable, the team can provide that clarity. They can see which items they have rebates on and how much they need to spend to reach another threshold within their programs.

“Now, we can clearly see that we can spend another £10,000 to get £50,000 back and focus our efforts appropriately,” Scott Mealing said.

So, why Enable?

Mealing summed up the choice in two sentences: “I thought, this will improve the rebate process and the business itself. That’s why I went for Enable.”