After the Vachon Bakery was acquired by Bimbo Canada, a project was undertaken to establish a permanent link between Vachon’s Direct Store Delivery (DSD) software ¬– the Companion® Suite by CIS Group – and Oracle, the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system in place at Bimbo Canada.

“Such an interfacing project is standard procedure for us at CIS. We can interface Companion® with any of the existing ERP systems – and we did with Oracle for a number of our clients, explains Eric Tessier, vice-president Sales and Marketing. Most companies indeed choose the benefit of the interface with their ERP, and we deliver it through our own Companion® Link, a perfected data transformation solution that features a scheduler and a system events controller as well. Now everything is up and running at Vachon, and going well.”

For Vachon, interfacing the existing Companion® application with the new ERP was the most sensible option, since the last fifteen years have proven Companion to be a dependable tool for the 250 drivers of the Vachon delivery force.

“Being able to monitor the operations at Vachon, and to see how the Companion® solution evolves, Grupo Bimbo will get a direct insight into an interesting option, especially as the platform connects directly with Oracle. Moreover, since the application is multilingual, and the customer support service as well, the option can be equally interesting for their U.S., Central and Latin America operations”, concludes Mr. Tessier.

About Grupo Bimbo

From its first bakery in Mexico City in 1945, Grupo Bimbo has grown to become in 2011 the largest baking company in the world with the acquisition of Sara Lee North American Fresh Bakery in the United States, Fargo in Argentina and Bimbo Iberia in Spain and Portugal. The year 2014 saw the acquisition of Canada Bread, with operations in Canada and the U.K., and Saputo Bakery, Inc. – Vachon. Today, Grupo Bimbo generates over 14 billion dollars in sales, offers more than a hundred brands and 13,000 products, and provides work for 141,000 associates. It counts one thousand sales routes in Canada, 12,000 routes in the United States, and 59,000 routes worldwide.

About Vachon

In 1923, Joseph-Arcade Vachon and his wife Rose-Anna Giroux acquire the Leblond Bakery in Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce. The family business experiences constant growth and as soon as the thirties, Rose-Anna’s little cakes are sold in nearly all of Quebec, from Chicoutimi to Val-d’Or, and also in Ontario and the Maritimes. At the end of the sixties, Vachon cakes are distributed in Vancouver, and the company continues to grow through the acquisition of Lido Biscuits. It then acquires Pâtisseries Vaillancourt, the Grenache facilities and finally Stuart during the seventies. In 1999, the Vachon brand becomes part of the Saputo Group, and in 2015 is acquired by Bimbo Canada, but operates under the name Vachon Bakery Inc., and preserves its original logo, history and culture.