Dear Valued Customer,
As many of you will recall, from our first trade newsletter last November or from various conversations and communication with any number of the Colart team, we went live with our new ERP system, M3, on schedule at the start of March. We are acutely aware that this has been a challenging time for many inside of Colart and more importantly for you our customers. Be it the year end closure for a full stock count (important to ensure integrity of information transfer to M3) or the slower than expected restart after M3 ‘Go Live’ we appreciate the support you have shown us. When any business moves to a completely new platform there are always challenges – some businesses virtually grind to a halt for months on end.
We have had some challenges, mainly around receiving stock into the Distribution Center, but the business is starting to get back up to speed. Some of our fill rates have been, and continue to be, lower than we want and for that we apologize. We did have some difficulties receiving stock and making it available for orders but we believe we have ironed out most of the technical issues. We expect to see only improving service levels and fill rates from here – albeit we believe May will still be below the levels we aspire to. The new M3 system, already integrated on many other Colart sites, will ultimately help us to service you, our customers, and with you our consumers better for many years to come.
Thank you again for your continued support of Colart, our brands and our people. Should you have any questions please reach out to your local representative in the first instance.
My best regards
Steve Chamberlain
Commercial Director – North America