Avoiding Greenwashing

How to build impactful, sustainable strategies through product experiences

Learn MoreLearn MoreLearn More
Akeneo-Logo Akeneo-Logo
Start Free TrialStart Free TrialStart Free Trial Request a DemoRequest a DemoRequest a Demo

Case Study: Mole Valley Farmers

Mole Valley Farmers leveraged improved speed to market with Akeneo

Akeneo played a significant role in unifying our product data and processes, so that this now runs smoothly through the ERP, to afford us not just speed to market in terms of getting products online, but also better product experiences for our customers, so products are easier to shop across all our touchpoints.

Brian McArdle, Head of Ecommerce

Challenges

  • Replatform onto Magento, while unifying retail systems on to a single ERP solution.
  • Legacy infrastructure impacting where and how data was stored.
  • Different systems and processes for brand teams.
  • Speed to market – prevent replatforming from disrupting eCommerce catalogue.

Benefits

  • Unified product information across all business units, teams and categories.
  • A single source of truth for product data.
  • Easier to identify product data gaps and inconsistencies.
  • Centralised product onboarding enabled relevant data for each sales channel or touchpoint.

The Challenge

Support customers with consistent, detailed 
 and accurate product specifications and images by integrating multiple IT systems on a central PIM platform

Originally established as an agricultural buying group in 1960, Mole Valley Farmers is now a nation-wide cooperative with a 56-strong store estate spanning its brands – Mole Valley Farmers, Mole Country Stores and Farmdirect – as well as operating its Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) website. Set up by farmers for farmers, Mole Valley’s founding principal of serving and supporting 
 the agricultural community remains at the heart 
 of its operations.

Now comprising over 9,000 farmers who 
 are shareholders and 53,000 members,
 it continues to help its customers improve productivity and profitability by offering products and services – from retail and engineering to veterinary and insurance – at competitive prices.

Mole Valley puts the needs of the agricultural community at its heart by making the breadth and depth of its products and services available online quickly, while delivering the consistent and accurate product data across each and every touchpoint.

As demand for its digital offer grew – having seen up to 30% year-on-year growth in online in 2022 – Mole Valley Farmers wanted to consolidate its legacy systems.

 

It became clear when we started
our digital transformation journey to optimise the ecommerce architecture, that we would only get to where we needed to be if our systems and our processes worked together more effectively.

Brian McArdle, Head of Ecommerce

The Solution & Results

Huge product catalogue growth

Partnering with Akeneo, Mole Valley Farmers was able prioritise data enrichment, but it also accelerated speed to market for products on its website; its product catalogue is now 55,000 SKUs, compared to just 20,000 when it first started the partnership.

 

Increased product offer through drop-ship fulfilment

Akeneo PIM also made it possible for
 Mole Valley Farmers to activate Drop-Ship fulfillment, increasing the range of products available to its customers via resellers, while ensuring that product information and product experiences were consistent and accurate across its 1st and 3rd party sales channels.

 

Product catalogue growth of 175% and with richer data improving operational speed of getting products live on the website.

 

Are you ready to take the next step?

Our Akeneo Experts are here to answer all the questions you might have about our products and help you to move forward on your PXM journey.