Company Culture and Tech Are Two Ingredients of Success For this Beverage Company
Kathryn Small, the Project Manager at White Labs, is helping to make beer more delicious than ever before with liquid yeast.
White Labs makes liquid yeast and distributes it to breweries, wineries, and distilleries to create great tasting alcohol. For those of you who don’t know, yeast is responsible for 70% of the flavor in beer, and White Labs creates the purest form of yeast around.
The path to the best beer in the world hasn’t always been easy though. Check out how Kathryn and White Labs used Enterprise Resource Planning software like NetSuite to expand from working in a garage to distribution centers all around the world.
What Does Growth Look Like at White Labs?
“We’ve grown leaps and bounds in five years. When I first started, we had one building in San Diego. Now we have three buildings on the block. We have Asheville, North Carolina, we have Copenhagen, Denmark, and we have a distribution warehouse in HongKong.” -Kathryn Small
While they might have started in a garage, White Labs has done a little expanding since then. Founded by Chris White in 1995, White Labs was originally just a one-off project until demand rose as people realized that they actually made really good beer, and they’ve been going ever since.
However, they’ve recently really started to take off in the last five years and Kathryn attributes this to their recent integration with NetSuite.
What is NetSuite?
NetSuite is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software that helps businesses grow. Using a single cohesive platform, ERP software can take all of the functions and daily tasks of a business and compile them into a single space, making it easier for businesses to manage all of their information and processes.
How Has NetSuite Helped White Labs Growth?
“When I came in, we were using three different systems for CRM, accounting, and for manufacturing. One of the things that has definitely helped us grow is NetSuite because NetSuite is an umbrella that incorporated all of those items.” -Kathryn Small
NetSuite was critical to White Labs growth. Apart from increasing employee productivity by turning several systems into a single cohesive system, it also helped them gather more accurate information and automate daily tasks that were eating up valuable manpower.
Not only did it increase productivity, but it also encouraged learning among employees. Because it was introduced after the company started, employees had to adapt quickly to the new software or be left behind.
By incorporating NetSuite into their business, White Labs was able to differentiate between employees who were adaptable and eager to learn and those who were unwilling to take risks or try new things. The end result was a leaner, more efficient group of employees to drive the business forward.
The Importance of Company Culture
“It’s important as a small company to have a family environment and as you grow, keep that family environment and turn it into a culture.” -Kathryn Small
White Labs is very focused on maintaining a healthy company culture. As a business focused on creating great tasting alcohol, you could almost say that it’s a requirement! A few ways White Labs keeps its employees happy and devoted are:
- Doing monthly grill and chills
- Celebrating milestones and meeting productivity goals
- Investing in employee education
The Takeaway
- Provide a quality product and the customers will come
- ERP software can help accelerate company growth and highlight star employees
- It’s important to maintain a happy, healthy environment for your workers