Case Study: Origin Coffee

Founded in 2004, everything Origin Coffee does has the triple bottom line approach of People, Planet and Profit.

People and Planet

Those are not just words. Origin Coffee became a B Corp (a global network of companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability) in 2020. Fewer than 3,500 companies worldwide have achieved this elite B Corp status. Two years later it achieved the prestigious Queen’s Award for Enterprise in Sustainable Development.

Comprehensive Coffee Business

Origin encompasses almost every facet of a coffee business, from procuring and roasting the best coffee in the world to selling wholesale, in their own 6 coffee shops, and on their website.

As well as selling coffee, Origin offers a complete range of services to support independent coffee shops, from supplying machinery and technical services right through to barista training.

With multi-channel coffee sales, 6 coffee shops, machinery sales and technical services, the business needs systems that can integrate and help them efficiently manage across all of these areas.

Legacy Software

Origin had used a legacy accounting software system for many years. This had served the business well in the early years, but by 2020 it was showing its age, requiring large amounts of manual effort and time to create reports via Excel to give Origin the management information they need to run the business effectively.

Cloud-integrated Software

To continue to grow and offer their complete range of products and services efficiently, Origin needed to implement modern cloud-integrated software. The starting point for any new solution would need to be the best accounting software to give them up-to-date financial information at their fingertips.

Origin were already using Shopify for their ecommerce sales and Goodtill for EPOS in the coffee shops. Outserve worked with Origin on a complete scope of work and recommended Xero for accounting, Unleashed for inventory management and A2X for ecommerce analysis.

Simplifying Complex Issues

With so many aspects of business, the project was complex with many moving parts and Origin understood that they would need a team of experts to work with to ensure a successful migration. Sam Connolly from Origin was appointed internal project manager and as one of his first jobs reached out to the Outserve team.

Working with Origin, Outserve migrated the legacy accounting data to Xero and integrated a full inventory management solution integrated to Shopify and Goodwill.

B2B and D2C

The integrated inventory management solution, Unleashed, is now set up to manage the whole supply chain, coffee roasting and sales process. From the original purchase orders of green coffee, through to the roasting and packaging, to the final B2B (Business to Business) or D2C (Direct to Consumer) sale - Unleashed has it all covered.

D2C ecommerce orders are passed automatically from Shopify to Unleashed so they can be picked, packed and wrapped. Unleashed will show available stock for all products based on orders placed and once despatched, stock will be updated, with accurate cost of goods sold posted to Xero automatically. A2X completes the ecommerce integration with analysis of e-commerce sales and fees posted to the Xero nominals.

Unleashed B2B portal

Business customers can place orders by email or telephone but in addition Outserve worked with Origin to build a B2B portal so business and wholesale customers can place orders online 24/7. The Unleashed portal offers B2B customers a seamless online ordering process, thus improving B2B customer experience and reducing admin input at Origin.

Origin’s Sam Connolly summed it up:

“The end solution is a completely integrated system with inventory management and financials at the heart to the best possible reporting. With the help of cloud software and Outserve, Origin continues from strength to strength and focussing on our triple bottom line - People, Planet and Profit!”