How Tony's Chocolonely reduced order processing time by 90% with Procuros

Tony's Chocolonely is one of the largest chocolate manufacturers in the Netherlands and is known for revolutionizing the chocolate industry through its commitment to human rights and environmental protection. Following the company's initial success, order volumes quickly increased. Tony's Chocolonely's operations team was tasked with the ambitious goal of expanding operations across Europe, bringing 100% exploitative-free chocolate to even more supermarket shelves.

To achieve this goal, the team had to automate supply chain processes and, above all, reduce dependence on internal resources and operational errors. This task proved to be a major challenge due to the company's limited IT resources.

This is where Procuros comes in: by using the Procuros Integration Hub, the company was able to access the entire Procuros trading partner network via a single API connection. The result? A significant increase in the speed of expansion with minimal IT involvement.

Thanks to Procuros, the Tony's Chocolonely team was able to meet customer requirements in European markets, drastically reduce manual effort and error rates, and further automate processes along the entire supply chain.

The challenge: Heterogeneous requirements for digital trading partner connections

When Tony's began expanding into German-speaking markets, the company quickly gained popularity among customers and can now be found in many large supermarket chains.

At first, Tony's team was delighted with every order and eagerly awaited the next one. As success grew, they began hiring additional staff to process orders—until customers like Edeka issued an ultimatum: either integrate digitally within six months or risk being forced to offer discounts.

Given the tight timeframe for finding, selecting, and subsequently implementing EDI integrations with all key customers across different markets, Tony's team needed to find a partner that would be able to quickly connect them with their trading partners and support them along the way with in-depth expertise on local market requirements.

The search: A partner with an API-first approach and comprehensive EDI expertise

Internally, Tony's prides itself on using the latest technology stack. The company uses Boomi as an "API integration layer" for its Microsoft Business Central ERP system and ensures that all processes flow through Boomi to ensure maximum transparency and flexibility. Accordingly, the company expected the same level of transparency and flexibility in its B2B integrations.

Bas, Tony's Business Central consultant and architect, says: "Finding a partner that uses forward-looking technologies was one of the most important decision criteria. For us, this means an API-first approach to maintain flexibility for adding additional use cases later on. Since we want to ensure a future-proof IT setup, old-fashioned flat file exchange was out of the question for us."

Furthermore, the potential partner had to offer a solution with minimal IT involvement, as the backlog had already been planned with the most important implementation projects in all branches.

In addition, the ideal partner has already carried out integrations with Tony's most important customers in the past and knows how to avoid the most common mistakes.

All of these criteria should be met by a provider so that you have a single point of contact and avoid unnecessary process complications or additional project or third-party costs.

The solution: a central interface with minimal IT effort

Procuros proved to be a reliable partner that had already completed integrations with key retail partners such as Edeka, Rewe, Globus, and Metro. By establishing a central connection to the Procuros integration network, Tony's was able to access the entire network of already connected retail partners with just a few clicks.

Since Procuros offers a fully managed service and thus handles all communication with trading partners, there was no need to gather additional knowledge about local market requirements or involve the IT department to answer questions and adapt interfaces.

Instead, Tony's team was able to plan a sprint with the IT team to integrate the Procuros API and have all data flow through a central API. When the Amsterdam colleagues saw the simplicity and user-friendliness of the solution, they decided to seize the opportunity and introduce Procuros to other markets beyond the originally targeted DACH region.

Thanks to the API-first approach, end-to-end order processing automation was just one of the many benefits they gained. In addition, the team was able to add data validation and feedback to their customer integrations, which drastically reduced the error rate and processing time.

What's next? Integration of even more processes

The integration of trading partners is just the beginning. With the ongoing integration of its logistics partner, the Tony's team hopes to avoid costly and reputation-damaging mistakes by ensuring that goods always arrive at the right place at the right time.

Looking ahead, Tony's also plans to tackle integration with its suppliers, expand integration to additional markets, and improve its validation processes to enable automatic price matching.

Jan (Head of Operations Dach & Nordics) sums up the collaboration with Procuros:

"Procuros was a great partner in helping us achieve our goals with the first use cases, and we expect them to be just as good a partner for all future tasks.."

We are honored to support the team on its journey to bring 100% exploitation-free chocolate to even more supermarket shelves!