Integrating business areas in agribusiness to deliver timely and relevant financial information

Agroalimentos is a Colombian healthy snacks company with nationwide reach, headquartered in Medellín and operating an agro-industrial plant in the municipality of Rionegro. Founded in 2017 by the Restrepo brothers, the company experienced rapid growth in its early years by capitalizing on the fitness lifestyle boom and the introduction of so-called superfoods into the national market. However, as is often the case for young entrepreneurs, this fast growth also brought a series of administrative issues and financial challenges.

The challenge

The founding team and board of directors were pleased with the company’s rapid growth in recent years. However, it was becoming increasingly difficult for them to manage the business—not only because of the heavy workload, but also due to the lack of a structured methodology for organizing their finances. Without proper financial reporting, they lacked the level of detail needed to navigate an increasingly complex business environment and struggled to communicate key performance metrics.

Agroalimentos’ management team felt frustrated by the accelerating pace of operations and their inability to gain a clear, holistic view of the business.

Our solution

We work closely with our clients, immersing ourselves in their operations to fully understand the business landscape. In the case of Agroalimentos, we established an internal financial function to coordinate the company’s core teams: crop operations, the production plant, the commercial area, and the external accounting firm. Our multidisciplinary intervention included:

• Cloud-based accounting system: Implemented to ensure traceability of all business transactions.

• Process standardization: Streamlined key procedures to optimize the use of time, raw materials, and labor.

• Field process documentation: Guided and supported the design of tools to better define business activities, while formalizing and socializing the new practices with employees.

• Risk mitigation: Established clear scopes with suppliers to reduce legal and tax exposure, and enhanced critical subsystems such as inventory management, payroll settlements, accruals, period closings, and financial planning.

• Integrated data management: Simplified data collection by consolidating tables into a single system, connecting different business areas strategically.

• Cash and banking procedures: Defined protocols for cash counts and bank reconciliations, ensuring transaction traceability and improving the quality of financial information.

• Cash flow management: Designed and implemented a cash flow statement with a clear separation of business activities, enabling effective monitoring of operations and investment plans.

• Capacity building: Delivered short training sessions and hands-on workshops to strengthen the entrepreneurial team’s financial management skills.

• Commercial alignment: Linked sales objectives with a detailed production plan, considering product line profitability, portfolio mix, and installed capacity utilization.

The result...

After an intervention of approximately 6 months, the Agroalimentos team obtained an arsenal of tools to continue with the growth and consolidation of its business.

Established process map: simple and intuitive formats to establish operation times, added value, waste analysis, responsible areas and improvement opportunities.

Real-time business insight: timely access to key business metrics with weekly management reports summarizing different areas of the business.

Greater coordination between areas: establishment of information and communication systems that favored the interaction of processes between different areas: accounting, production, purchasing, collections and commercial.

Cost optimization and greater labor satisfaction: greater agility in the relationship processes and management of the relationship with employees. Less waste of ingredients, achieving a better use of raw materials.

Reduced legal, tax and operational risk: up to date documentation and accounting paperwork for both sales and purchase invoices, providing greater control over the business. Optimization of payroll processes and identification of the break-even point.

Greater control over the business operation: for cash flow projection and budget control, designing instruments for working capital management and ensuring traceability.

Significant improvement in data quality and reliability: establishment of a reliable information architecture for the generation, updating and custody of the company's financial information.

Increased efficiency and productivity: through process reengineering, it was possible to increase weekly production by up to 50% in a sustainable manner.

"Simple ideas come from complex thinking; in this case observation, a couple of physical formulas and everyday materials were enough to optimize liquid management in an industrial processing plant."