Monster Plumb Unblocks its Operations with Brightpearl and Inventory Planner – and Saves 2,000 Hours a Year

Background

Monster Plumb is a fast-growing plumbing supplies retailer based in Staffordshire. Founded in 2015, the business offers 13,000+ SKUs – including fittings, pipes and bathroom fixtures – via its Magento site, serving both trade and DIY customers. It’s now expanding into marketplaces like B&Q and Amazon.

From chaos to control

At first, they tried a rudimentary ERP called Profit4 by OGL, but they quickly realised it wasn’t fit for purpose.

Duncan says: “Profit4 wasn’t right for e-commerce – we never got past implementation. I was tasked with finding something else and came across Brightpearl through Sage.

“I’d used Sage in a previous accounting role, so that gave me confidence. I watched loads of Brightpearl videos on YouTube, read through the help docs and decided it was the right fit.”

After a smooth-sailing set-up, led by Brightpearl’s in-house team of implementation experts, Monster Plumb had access to a suite of features specifically designed for retail enterprises like theirs.

These features include a powerful no-code Automation Engine, market-leading inventory planning and advanced reporting.

Brightpearl also offers a huge range of Plug & Play integrations, providing seamless, ready-made connections to leading apps and tools, including Monster Plumb’s Magento website.

Duncan says: “We needed a centralised source of truth for the whole business – Brightpearl has given us that, and more. It’s saved us a hell of a lot of money by solving our operational inefficiencies.In just a couple of clicks, we can see what’s in stock, what’s allocated, what’s shipped.We’re now at least 90% accurate on stock, which is a big improvement. Using Brightpearl’s Automation Engine, we’ve set up six or seven 100% error-free automations for everything from invoicing to fulfilment.”

Flushing away inefficiencies

With all the smart functionality Monster Plumb needs to run efficiently — and scale confidently — the results were immediate.

One of the most dramatic impacts has been the time savings. Based on Duncan’s conservative estimates, the business is saving 160 hours a month. That’s nearly 2,000 hours a year!

As well as the cost savings linked to less manual workflows, Brightpearl means key members of management are freed up to focus on strategy and growth, rather than everyday fire-fighting.

Duncan says: “We’re easily saving eight hours a day across the team. Label typing alone used to take 4 hours a day. Sorting orders was another 3-4 hours. It’s freed up our team massively.”

Inventory Planner by Sage

As part of Monster Plumb’s Brightpearl subscription, the business has complete access to Inventory Planner by Sage – a top-rated inventory planning tool which reveals which inventory to order, how much to order, and the perfect moment to order it, based on an accurate calculation of how much a merchant will sell.

Its accurate forecasting factors in supplier timescales, seasonality and promotions alongside historical sales data. It then translates the forecasts into automatic buying recommendations.

For Monster Plumb, which sells primarily via its own Magento webstore, it delivered a major upgrade in efficiency.

It has enabled the business to dramatically reduce overstock and optimize inventory – ensuring cash is only invested in the most popular and profitable items to maximize profits.

Duncan says:

“We moved warehouse just before going live with Brightpearl. When we moved, we realised how overstocked we were—one product line alone took up 8 aisles. Inventory Planner immediately got that down to four. We’re no longer sitting on dead stock. We’ve actually doubled our overall stock levels but it’s all fast-moving items.”

“Our most used Inventory Planner features are probably the replenishment report, which shows us exactly which items to order and when, and the overstock report, which flags up any slow-moving items so we can take quick action before it becomes an issue.

“Those reports save us so much time and ensure we are accurate with our ordering.”

Final insights

The transformation has been profound. With a streamlined operation and full confidence in their systems, Monster Plumb is now focused on expansion — including new sales channels like B&Q Marketplace and Amazon. It’s a leap they wouldn’t have considered before Brightpearl.

“There’s no way we could go back to life before Brightpearl,” Duncan adds.

“If we had to go back, we’d probably just shut it down. We don’t want to go through that chaos again!”

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