Press Release

Food Importer Makes Big Gains with Avercast
Ethnic Kitchens Discovers Best Practices Can Grow a Business Exponentially

Contact: Tim McGraw
media@avercast.com

For immediate release

“When Kunal Bharadwaj and his sister attended a wedding in Southern California in 2004, the talk of the event was fresh-made dessert flown in from India by an aunt. Though such point-to-point deliveries are rare, Bharadwaj and his sister recognized an entrepreneurial opportunity. They flew to India, spoke to manufacturers and began importing versions of the dessert that could make the journey by ocean container.”

The time seemed right, and Ethnic Kitchens of Cerritos, California was born. Yet soon, the shopkeepers and grocers they supplied inevitably asked for other items, often other food items and spices but at times even clothing.

“We started to add other products so we could both fulfill their demand and grow Ethnic Kitchens,” said Bharadwaj, who now serves as the company’s COO. “But we soon found all of our cash locked up in inventory. There was a pattern of not having items in stock when customers were asking for them and an inability to buy those in-demand items because the majority of our inventory was comprised of items that weren’t selling.”

So Bharadwaj embarked on a quest for affordable inventory forecasting and demand planning software. He also suffered from sticker shock.

“Most of the software was a $150,000 purchase and another $130,000 for implementation,” Bharadwaj said. “The largest providers expected us to buy an entire ERP suite.” Ethnic Kitchens was in need of a robust, affordable tool that was scalable enough to fit the needs of a growing business using QuickBooks that could then in turn be interfaced to a future ERP system of Ethnic Kitchens’ choosing. Upon discovery of the Avercast software suite, Bharadwaj stated “So here was software that filled the bill and that we didn’t need an entire IT department to install and operate.”

Bharadwaj said the real shock came when the system made its recommendations based on the 12-month inventory and ordering history that generated the first orders. “That’s when we were perfectly flabbergasted,” Bharadwaj said. “We had been ordering enough items to fill one container when according to the forecast we should be buying enough items to fill two and a half containers.” Skeptical at first, Bharadwaj said the recommended forecast not only reduced inventory levels, but almost doubled the company’s top line.

“Now our forecasting and demand planning process is streamlined,” Bharadwaj said. “There are no disparate modules, just one button. I click it, it runs the QuickBooks conduit and Avercast opens and exports a report I can manipulate in Excel. I sleep better now. When you’re a small business you don’t want to wonder ‘Did I run it right?’”
That simplicity of understanding is what drove Avercast to better understand a business like Bharadwaj’s. “We bought the software but we didn’t have a crew of demand planners and forecasters working for us,” Bharadwaj said. “Gene and his folks listened and made the software do what we needed it to do.”

About Avercast, LLC

Avercast, LLC's Enterprise level inventory forecasting and demand planning software solutions are the world’s first easy-to-use tools for companies that want to optimize inventories based on true demand. Avercast's proprietary forecasting technology includes an industry leading 185 forecasting algorithms to handle product trending, sales seasonality, new product introductions, mature and aging products, intermittent product demand, low volume and slow moving products, product promotions, and much more. Avercast, LLC is headquartered in Rexburg, Idaho USA and can be reached at 208-538-5380. Please call or visit www.avercast.com for more information and/or to schedule a personal demonstration using your company’s inventory and demand data.

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