Guernsey Dairy

Situation

Headquartered in Northville, MI, Guernsey Dairy is a family-owned dairy company in business since 1940. The Company provides high-quality dairy products and distributes them through local and regional grocery and convenience stores.

The Company had been experiencing year-over-year losses as the milk market drove production costs higher and efficiencies were difficult to identify.

Financial and operational information was unavailable or difficult to obtain from the Company’s accounting systems and processes leaving management unable to properly identify and correct the situation.

Solution

Amherst Partners was engaged to work with the Company’s long-time controller and new assistant controller to review internal controls, processes, and procedures, to identify areas of weakness – both in information reporting and operationally – and to assist in improving management’s ability to identify issues and opportunities in a timely manner.

The Company had indicated that their existing ERP system was unstable, insufficient, difficult to use, and wholly unable to track the informational items needed by management. Amherst learned the system and identified many areas in which the Company was either not utilizing its capabilities or utilizing only a portion of them.

Results

Working with the controller and assistant controller, Amherst assisted in the implementation of a number of changes to the policies and procedures utilized by the Company’s financial staff.

The resulting changes in reporting capability allowed the Company to identify a number of operational adjustments for immediate implementation.

The changes also allowed for the immediate implementation of a financial planning process and provided management with a short term and annual cash flow budget for the first time.