Mexican Company Goes Global with SAP NetWeaver Process Integration

Evan J. Albright

Topics: Administration, Business Process Management, customerPROFILES, Development, Integration, Manufacturing, SAP NetWeaver

When Grupo Industrial LALA (GILSA), one of the largest dairy companies in the world, decided to break into the United States market from its headquarters in Mexico, the company jumped in with both feet in January 2008 by buying its first US-based manufacturing plant: a yogurt production facility in Omaha, Nebraska, purchased from Wells’ Dairy, Inc.

Acquiring the new manufacturing plant from Wells’ Dairy meant acquiring the market share as well as a new set of well-established, large retail customers. As with so many acquisitions, it also meant understanding and aligning an organization that was working from a completely different business model than the parent company. To address this, GILSA assigned its SAP team to bring the data from the new subsidiary into the corporate fold and ensure that the data worked seamlessly.

In Mexico, GILSA not only manufactures its dairy products, but also distributes them with a fine-tuned supply chain that delivers its product lines (about 450 stock-keeping units) to a large number of retail customers as well as thousands of small neighborhood stores throughout the country.