Cornish organics skincare producer adopts digital technology

Made for Life Organics Ltd has introduced management planning tools to increase efficiencies and plan for growth.

Made for Life Organics Ltd makes and sells 100% organic skincare products from its base in Penryn.  Managing Director, Amanda Winwood has led the business for more than 15 years and the company currently employs 7 staff.

Hand-blended in Cornwall, their products are based on herbs, flowers and oils from as close by as quality will allow.  Every ingredient has 100% traceability and production is based on an ethos of healthy and wholesome living, from the labels on the recycled glass bottles and jars to the product miles of the ingredients.

The extensive range is sold via their online shop, as well as stocked at some of the UK’s best-known spas and hotels.  They are also leading in developing and rolling out an innovative service – Cancer Touch Therapy and have trained over 500 therapists to deliver specialist spa treatments to people going through cancer using the Made for Life Organics Range.

Amanda approached Superfast Business Cornwall to help her use technology to improve business processes as she explains:

“As a growing business we needed to maintain the quality of our existing products and develop and introduce new products to our range.  Our systems were time intensive and support was needed to help us embrace modern technology.  We needed to make to efficiencies and produce timely and flexible data capture in order to improve and grow the business.”

Steve Edwards, Digital Business Enabler with Superfast Business Cornwall, met with Amanda and conducted a process systems mapping exercise which highlighted the priorities for the business and where digital technology could provide improvements.

Steve explained:

“We researched available solutions and identified that implementing both an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) tool and a Manufacturing Resources Planning (MRP) tool would enable the business to scale-up.  These affordable and flexible tools will help them meet their business challenges and capitalise on market opportunities, while providing improved client and sales intelligence.”

Superfast Business Cornwall funded the project to implement a suitable ERP and MRP solution.   These cloud-based applications bring together all aspects of the business to enable tighter controls on sales, purchasing, production and stock inventory.  There is far more visibility and control on processes as well as saving significant amounts of time.

The company experienced immediate benefits as Amanda describes:

“We have removed very time-consuming working practices, freeing up time to focus on our growth strategy for 2019.  We have ambitious and exciting plans which includes the implementation of new products, research and extending services to complement our existing range.  The implementation of the systems allows us to increase sales and also have an enhanced commercial knowledge of our costs which will in turn help in pricing our products and services. It will now be easier to set up contracts with bigger stockists and provide information on ingredients traceability and pricing in a user-friendly format.”

The company has contracts to supply products to Center Parcs, Nuffield Health Care and will be expanding direct sales on their website.  Amanda has been able to employ two more staff as a result of adopting the new technology and hopes to be able to create one more post soon.

Steve concludes:

“Made for Life Organics Ltd is a perfect example of how to adopt digital technology to provide efficiencies and increase productivity to prepare for business growth.  Amanda has not been afraid to implement the changes and is now starting to reap the benefits.”

More information about Made for Life Organics