Case Study

Puratos Grand-Place - Cocoa Supply Chain

Transparent Cocoa Purchasing and Quality Control on Odoo in Vietnam

Industry: Food Ingredients Manufacturing
Company Size: 150 Employees
Users: 20
Go-live: January 2014
Effort: 40 man-days
Modules: Purchase, Invoicing, Inventory, Quality Control (custom)

About the Client

Puratos Grand-Place Indochina (PGPI) is a joint venture between Puratos Group and Grand-Place Holding, both headquartered in Belgium. Puratos Group supplies chocolate, bakery and patisserie ingredients worldwide and, as of 2014, had more than 9,000 employees, 93 research centers and 65 production sites in 81 countries. PGPI has operated in Vietnam since 1994, producing around 3,000 tons of chocolate coatings and decorations a year for premium hotels, bakeries, confectionery stores and ice cream manufacturers, and exporting part of its output to North America and Asia. In 2011, it launched chocolate made entirely in Vietnam, from cocoa cultivation to the finished product.

The Challenge

Cocoa Purchasing From Farmers in Bến Tre

PGPI runs a cocoa collection and processing center in Bến Tre that works closely with local farmers, providing financial support, fertilizers and farming techniques, and buying at prices set from the London cocoa futures price on ICE Futures Europe and daily exchange rates. Price updates were manual and error-prone, data was scattered, farmer transactions and debts were hard to follow, and paper records made quality traceability and export compliance difficult.

Manual Warehouse Processes for Food Ingredients

In Bình Dương, PGPI invested in a warehouse for bakery and chocolate ingredients, including imported cocoa. Stock checks were manual and error-prone, expiry dates and storage conditions were hard to track, there was no demand forecasting to prevent shortages or excess stock, and traceability for food safety inspections took time.

Quality Audits on Farms Without Internet

Quality control starts at the farm, but many cocoa plantations are in remote areas with limited internet access, which makes on-site inspections and reporting difficult.

Why Odoo & Trobz

Trobz built the cocoa collection work on Odoo's standard apps and added custom development for what is specific to cocoa: how purchase prices are calculated and how quality is checked against tolerance thresholds. Manufacturing management with full traceability, from the farmer to the bag of dry beans, is planned for later iterations.