Merenda Foods builds a single foundation for controlled growth

Breda, July 2026 – Merenda Foods is growing. As a producer of organic baby snacks and porridges for private label, the company has been building other brands’ success for more than forty years. Every product is developed specifically, and in close consultation with the customer, for retailers, A-brands and distributors across the Netherlands and abroad.

That growth forced Merenda Foods to confront a hard question: how do you stay agile for customers of every size without putting unsustainable pressure on your own organisation? The solution wasn’t another standalone system, but a single, unified foundation the entire business could build on.

Since 1 June 2026, that foundation has been in place. Merenda Foods went live with Aptean Food & Beverage ERP, built on Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, within six months and comfortably within budget.

A system that could no longer keep up

Spreadsheets here, an outdated application there, and nothing talking to each other. “We had a kind of spaghetti automation,” says Marco Netten, Interim IT Manager at Merenda Foods. “We couldn’t keep growing, because our systems were outdated and missing essential food-specific functionality.”

That was the starting point of the search: not an upgrade of the old system, but a replacement that actually matched how Merenda Foods works. Netten led the implementation. The result: purchasing, sales, planning, production and finance now come together on one platform for the first time.

Why Aptean

During the search, Merenda Foods set two non-negotiables: the company wanted to stay on Microsoft, and it wanted food functionality built into the standard solution rather than bolted on as costly customisation or run separately alongside it. For a private label producer, that is essential. Aptean proved to be the partner that could deliver it.

The fact that Merenda Foods’ CFO and IT organisation already knew Aptean from previous projects gave the project a head start. Just as important was the consultants’ approach: not a custom-built solution, but a standard product already tailored to the food and beverage industry.

Foodproducent Merenda Foods implementeert ERP-systeem Business Central via Aptean

Source: Merenda Foods

From production floor to warehouse

For Merenda Foods’ production teams, the impact is greatest. Raw materials and ingredients are scanned at the point of use, giving real-time insight into every production order rather than piecing information together later. That means every material is verified, and traceability is significantly strengthened. Paper has disappeared completely: staff can now follow each production order digitally, including output, consumption and any remaining quality checks.

The picture is the same in the warehouse. Every item now has a storage location in Business Central; pallets carry an SSCC code, and the underlying warehouse layout has been redesigned to support it. For Merenda Foods’ customers, who put their own brand on the product, one thing matters above all: if a batch doesn’t meet requirements, it is blocked immediately, and its origin can be traced with complete precision.

At the same time, Merenda Foods has dramatically improved its data quality by restructuring its master data and using workflows to capture information in a structured, logical way – the company now benefits from clear and dependable reporting in Power BI.

Phase two: from capturing data to optimising it

Going live was phase one. Phase two is about optimisation, for example scheduling production through a visual planning board. Elements still living in Excel, such as quality-complaint registration, are being moved across to the new system step by step. The transition isn’t always seamless; some teams have worked in their own way for years. Even so, support is growing, simply because people can see the benefits of Business Central.

There is more on the horizon. Through the connection with the Microsoft app store, Merenda Foods can add extra functionality without setting up a new project every time. Aptean, too, is already looking ahead. “Merenda Foods has built a strong foundation with Business Central and Aptean’s food-specific capabilities. Aptean AI can take that even further by boosting employee productivity – an opportunity we’re keen to explore together,” says Joris Kolff, Senior Regional Account Director at Aptean.

Ready for controlled growth

For Merenda Foods, this project is more than a system change: departments now genuinely work with each other instead of alongside each other. Data no longer needs to be recorded in multiple systems, and internal processes have been reshaped and optimised as a result. That gives the company a solid base for continued international growth with private-label customers, without quality or lead times paying the price. With Aptean as its partner, Merenda Foods now has a platform that can scale with the business, today and in the years ahead.