Perfecting the Foodservice Packaging Process with Cin7

In December 2025, Oji Foodservice Packaging Solutions (Oji) separated from a multinational company, becoming an independent manufacturer and importer of foodservice package items sold in the Australasia marketplace. But Oji’s independence wasn’t complete without discarding its inherited (and way too big) ERP in favor of perfectly sized Cin7.

Oji supplies foodservice packaging, think beverage cups and lids, produce trays, paper bags, and plenty more, to everyone from local coffee shops to national QSR brands across Australia and New Zealand. They run a B2B distribution model out of a warehouse in Brisbane and a 3PL in New Zealand, moving product from their own storage straight to their customers' doors.

Their claim to fame? “We’ve been supplying the iconic Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket here in Australia for 30 years,” says Business Manager Matthew Clare.

That's something to cluck about. But Oji wasn't celebrating when it inherited SAP, the enterprise ERP from its originating company. SAP was built for businesses far bigger than Oji's lean team, and the bills reflected that.

“We were getting these really big invoices for SAP,” Matthew explains. “And that was a good reason to change inventory systems.”

The cost wasn't the only problem. Oji was dependent on shared services teams across Australia and New Zealand for even basic changes. Onboarding a new product, supplier, or customer was, in Matthew's words, "painful." The system itself didn't help either.

“It was like you needed to have a degree to know how to use the thing.”

It didn't take long for Matthew and the team to decide SAP had to go. With a few options on the table, one of Oji's new owners pointed them toward an inventory management system that had everything they needed in one place: Cin7.

“We didn’t need to be an expert to use Cin7. It was user friendly.”

Sealing the Deal with Cin7’s Inventory Solution

Moving to Cin7 was an easy decision. Getting there was another story. Implementations can go either way, but Oji's went smoothly thanks to New Zealand-based implementation partner CNZ Consultants.

“They’ve been great. They had done SAP conversions before,” Matthew says. “CNZ was able to teach us about Cin7 prior to using the system. Tiffany was our Go-To. Tiffany had the knowledge of what worked and what didn't for us across our business units in SAP, she made it look easy. I am sure there were some bumps in the road but she worked closely with CNZ to make it all happen.”

He adds: “As part of the package we chose with CNZ, we paid to have one of their staff members come over from New Zealand to be onsite for two or three days.”

Fourteen days later, Oji was live on Cin7. The trickiest part was extracting clean data from SAP and getting it into the right format, which is just the nature of leaving a system like SAP behind.

“I’ve heard some absolute horror stories about having to run systems side-by-side, but with CNZ’s help, we switched off SAP and started using Cin7 day one.”

Unwrapping the Benefits of Cin7

Once Oji was up and running, the difference was immediate. Cin7 connected seamlessly with their accounting solution, Xero, while also putting a lid on pain-filled, SAP-orchestrated workflows. Both the Brisbane warehouse and New Zealand 3PL are now set up in Cin7, giving the team real inventory visibility and a much cleaner order process.

“We receive orders on a PDF via an email and then key them into Cin7,” Matthew says. “Once the order is keyed, it goes to our warehouse manager who processes the orders. The orders are then picked, dispatched, and invoiced. It’s easy.”

Gaining an easy order management process is just one of a batch of Cin7 benefits. Speaking of which, Oji is enjoying its newfound batch control, batch receipt recording, and fast traceability for key accounts, like KFC.

“We do a batch control system for KFC whose items need to be recorded as a batch. We can trace a batch and know when the stock has come in, how much of that stock is there, and where it’s gone to. Compared to SAP, we find this very simple.”

So simple that running a batch check went from upwards of one hour to one or two minutes with the click of a button. Significant time savings have also been logged with the team now setting up a new customer in only minutes along with faster SKU and supplier onboarding, empowering the business to move at its own pace.

As for reporting, Cin7’s user-friendly reports and easily accessible data have:

• Cut Oji’s request wait times (in SAP, complicated reports would have to be reviewed by an accounting team)
• Reduced Oji’s need to export huge Excel files
• Allowed the team to customize the reports they use, including Sales by Invoice, Sales by Product, and Sales by Representative, by adding needed fields, such as specific customer and product codes
• Enabled the Oji team to quickly analyze sales trends and results.

“We’ve been able to drill down by customer or customer group, with the sales team able to jump on and look at the information themselves, which is very helpful.”

Serving Up What’s Next with Cin7

Cin7 has changed how Oji operates day to day, with less reliance on specialists, fewer bottlenecks, and in Matthew's words, "less stress on everyone." But the team isn't done yet.

With Cin7 and CNZ alongside them, Oji is working toward a few clear goals:

• Improve cash flow and better its purchasing controls with Cin7’s automated inventory and purchasing modules
• Get rid of any overstocking or understocking situations as well as effectively handle its lead times (Oji imports products from a number of overseas suppliers) with Cin7’s inventory forecasting software, ForesightAI, which delivers valuable, AI-driven demand planning insights
• Cut costs and reduce the complexity brought by their bolted-on B2B website by implementing Cin7’s embedded intuitive, customer-self-service B2B portal

For Oji, switching from SAP to Cin7 has been as straightforward as it was necessary. The monthly savings are real, the inventory is accurate, and the reporting is powerful. But what Matthew keeps coming back to is something simpler than any of that.

“With Cin7, we’re independent and don’t have to rely on anyone else. We have the information we need to make business decisions immediately. Cin7 is simple to use, and we recommend it and CNZ to other businesses.”