Abbott Supply :

Abbott Supply: the full story

Our customer

Established in 1853 by Joseph Henry Abbott, Abbott Supply has operated continuously for a staggering 165 years to service the regional city of Bendigo in Victoria’s goldfields.

Beginning as a store supplying essential everyday items to those seeking their fortune on the goldfields, today Abbott Supply services the thriving Central Victorian hub of Bendigo and district, providing tools, industrial and engineering hardware, pipe, mesh, fencing materials — and with a full steel yard in operation.

Since 1986, current owners Greg and Jill Woodman, and Mark and Jan Rohde and families, have been proudly continuing the tradition of service for hardworking local business in Bendigo and surrounds.

Strong Wholesale & Trade focus

Abbott Supply has a predominately wholesale and trade focus for the business — with around 80% of their customers being wholesale or trade customers, and the remaining 20% being retail.

“With so much of the business being about servicing trade and wholesale customers,” says Greg, “this has meant that we’ve tapped heavily into the full range of features that SYM-PAC gives us to help us do that easily.”

Online store now up & running with SYM-PAC

“Our previous software could not cope with the size of our product database,” explains Greg. “SYM-PAC has handled that with no issue.

“This has meant that we’ve finally been able to launch our Online store — which has been fantastic for the business.

“We’re able to offer additional service to our customers online (24 hours a day, 7 days a week), making it easier for them to work with us and helping us to be their supplier of choice.”

Pricing & Margin Management with SYM-PAC

“The ability we have now with our SYM-PAC system — to change pricing easily, adjust our markups, and create special pricing for Wholesale and Trade customers has been a great benefit to the business,” says Greg.

“SYM-PAC’s Table Magic is a great feature.

“Through re-jigging and adjusting our customer pricing structure, simply and quickly, we have improved our GP percentage by 1-2%,” he explains.

What has the staff response been?

“The staff response to introducing the SYM-PAC system into the business has been exactly as expected!” laughs Greg.
“The younger ones have been enthusiastic and found it a breeze, while the older staff were slower to embrace — but they have all got there eventually!”

The choice to use SYM-PAC

A couple of the main reasons why Abbott Supply chose SYM-PAC were:

• SYM-PAC was competitively priced
• SYM-PAC had most of the features Abbott Supply was looking for
• SYM-PAC was ideally suited to Abbott Supply’s type of business

“SYM-PAC is so much better than our previous system,” says Greg.

“We can now see how antiquated it actually was — and I wish we had installed SYM-PAC years before we did.”

What have been the best things about using the SYM-PAC system?

• Easy manipulation of large amounts of data
• Integrated EFTPOS — fantastic!
• Loyalty Management for our Gift Cards
• Easy-to-use financial reporting

SYM-PAC’s approach

Greg thinks that SYM-PAC has a very good product which is well suited to Abbott Supply’s business.

“I’d love it though if they could be a bit quicker to work on customised alterations!” he laughs.

“But that being said, they have already provided a huge range of features within their standard offerings that have really given our business the support to move forward with many things that we didn’t have the necessary tools to accomplish previously.”

Future plans for Abbott Supply

“Establishing our Online store is something that we were keen to have up and running for a very long time — and it’s great to have this in place now,” says Greg.

Abbott Supply have many other plans for the future — we look forward to supporting them for their next 165 years!