Premier Forest Products

For Premier Forest Products, one of the UK’s leading independent importers and distributors of timber and panel products, diversification is a core part of the company’s strategy. Through acquisitions, the company has broadened product and service offerings to include engineered timber solutions, joinery and manufacturing of a wide range of new products, such as staircases and specialised timber frame components.

This strategy has served the company well, enabling Premier Forest Products to navigate market volatility, reach new customers, and maintain an advantage in the marketplace.

Neil Davies, CFOO, and Joe Walker, Operations Director, discuss how having a single ERP platform is vital to managing this ever-growing scope—quickly integrating newly acquired companies, optimising working capital, and driving efficiencies across the supply chain.

Discover how Epicor BisTrack in the cloud and Epicor Financials deliver much-needed advanced reporting and data-driven business intelligence—enabling Premier Forest Products to scale and grow.

Sum is Greater Than the Parts

Premier Forest Products is intrinsically linked to the construction sector, which has suffered an economic slump in recent years. That’s why, in part, the company’s acquisition strategy has focused on growth in higher value areas, shifting away from the commodity business into new geographies. For example, the company’s recent acquisition of National Timber Systems brings new engineering timber solutions across the UK.

“We’re optimistic the construction industry will rebound, and we are well-positioned when that happens,” says Walker. “In the meantime, we are focused on efficiently managing and integrating all pieces of our business, including new acquisitions, as the sum is greater than the parts.”

Performance and Scalability

An Epicor customer since 2004, Premier Forest Products migrated to new versions of Epicor BisTrack over the years, most recently moving from BisTrack 3.9 to BisTrack in the cloud and deploying Epicor Financials. The shift to the cloud was driven by performance, scalability, and security.

“Going through a third party to host servers means that processes are disjointed and we seemed to be forever chasing our tails in terms of scalability,” Walker shares. “The ability to scale was particularly important to support our continued growth and new users following acquisitions.”

Employees adapted quickly to the shift with limited training and were comfortable on the platform after just a few hours of use. And the benefits didn’t stop there. “We saw an immediate performance boost following the move to the cloud, and having the power behind the platform means we’re not doing constant upgrades and can stay current with the latest Epicor BisTrack updates.

Intelligence from Epicor BisTrack allows us to reduce stock levels and sharpen our working capital, providing financial agility. We wouldn’t have been able to do recent acquisition deals without that level of operational insight.

It makes life an awful lot easier,” Walker adds. After acquiring companies, the new entities would come to the table with their own financial systems, processes, accountants, and bookkeepers, creating operational complexity for Premier Forest Products and increasing the need for a unified system. 

“As we acquire companies, we transfer the trade and business of these acquired companies into Premier Forest Products rather than keep them on their own systems,” Davies explains. “We try to get the businesses into Epicor BisTrack as quickly as possible as it’s the one system that touches everyone across the company.”

Strengthening Financial Agility  

The company relies on BisTrack to monitor financial performance, maintain operational control, and inform inventory decisions—taking advantage of extensive reporting and business intelligence.

Each night the company generates a report of all invoices to provide a temperature check of the business, along with insight into suggested purchase orders, stock levels by branch, and receivables by customer.

“From a board perspective, having visibility across the business is extremely valuable,” Davies says. “Intelligence from Epicor BisTrack allows us to reduce stock levels and sharpen our working capital, providing financial agility. We wouldn’t have been able to do recent acquisition deals without that level of operational insight.”  

Turn Data into Operational Advantage

Beyond core financial and inventory visibility, the company uses BisTrack’s powerful analytics, dashboards, and Smart Views for forecast reporting and other decision making. The flexibility of the system allows the company to tap into data in new ways and address complex logistical challenges.

Walker explains the advantages. “The sheer flexibility of Epicor BisTrack is huge. We’re able to dive into sales and stock data to understand how to take the right action. It’s quite a complex reporting ecosystem.”

For example, a recent acquisition resulted in large amount of stock across multiple locations, creating a major logistical challenge. Using customised reporting in BisTrack, the company mapped inventory against historical sales patterns, revealing the highest density of users to help target sales. “And all of that information was within a single Epicor BisTrack Smart View, which just shows the power of the system” Walker adds.

Optimise Inventory and Distribution

In addition to using BisTrack to get a historical understanding of where products have sold versus where they reside, the company also uses information to power suggested purchase orders—factoring in business intelligence to keep stock as lean as possible. This means that rather than purchasing more products regionally, the company transfers inventory where items will be most in demand and likely to be sold.

The company was among the first customers in the UK to deploy Epicor Mobile Inventory, enabling electronic counts across warehouses. “We can count millions of pounds of stock in about 90 minutes,” Walker says. “Epicor Mobile Inventory a vital part of our business—I can’t conceive doing it any other way.”

Plus, with BisTrack Journey Planner, Premier Forest Products optimises delivery routes and improves asset utilisation across the company’s vehicle fleet. “Our vehicles are a big asset as we spend around £5-6 million a year moving products around the country and so we want to make the most of that overhead,” Walker says. “Epicor BisTrack Journey Planner helps us boost distribution productivity and get items from Point A to Point B in the most efficient manner.”

The company also credits Journey Planner as a powerful sales tool—utilised by reps to identify delivery capacity and proactively reach out to customers. “If our team knows they’ll be in a certain area and have spare space on a vehicle, they’ll contact customers about adding items to an order—a great way to boost engagement,” Walker adds.

Anticipate Customer Needs

The more Premier Forest Products knows about customers, the better. With BisTrack, the company has instant access into credit standing, account status, and historical sales levels—helping Sales Managers understand sales versus gaps to better focus sales activities.

Plus, by proactively managing stock volumes, the company ensures contract customers in manufacturing have the materials needed for factory production. “We can make sure we have continuity of supply for manufacturers, while balancing the optimum amount of stock for our own business, allowing us not to have cash tied up in product that’s excess to their rate of requirements,” shares Davies.

And the company analyses usage by customer groups, individual customers, for types of industry, leveraging that data to run rates used for suggested purchase orders. “With Epicor BisTrack, we can get inventive with purchase orders, customising and combining products together to fit our needs,” he continues. 

For example, the company may have the same products but from four different brands. BisTrack pulls those together, recognising they are essentially the same thing, and allowing the team to look at run rates and stock levels based on that data. From there, the company can run “what if” scenarios by customer to determine stock needed if they enter a quiet period or if business increases by a certain percentage.

Drive Efficiency with Visibility

Premier Forest Products maintains a commitment to environmental responsibility, providing products that meet the highest environmental standards and maintaining certifications and compliance tied to sustainability. And BisTrack plays an important role in this mission.

Visibility drives efficiency. If we can see what other parts of the business are doing with Epicor BisTrack, then we can utilise our assets, stock, and people most effectively.

“It all comes back to data analysis. Extensive data across the supply chain must be captured and tracked to maintain levels of compliance and stay current with international legislation. Epicor BisTrack helps support that,” Walker says.

As Premier Forest Products continues to diversify, Epicor technology remains central to the company’s strategy, with plans to expand usage to bring automation to manufacturing and other business processes. When asked the biggest benefits of having BisTrack in place, both Walker and Davies circle back to central theme: visibility.

“It’s about customer visibility and how quickly we can pick up on customer trends and have a full picture of the customer,” Davies explains. “Being able to move away from disparate systems and gain a single source of truth helps us know stock levels and stock targets to manage our working capital.”

“Visibility drives efficiency,” Walker concludes. “If we can see what other parts of the business are doing, then we can utilise our assets, stock, and people most effectively. Having a single ERP platform allows us to be creative, whether combining suggested purchase orders or alerting sales reps about available stock—none of which would be possible without deep, real-time visibility.