How Carlsberg automated forecasting and cost of materials analysis with Anaplan in the Eastern Europe

Carlsberg Group is one of the world’s leading breweries, supplying more than 100 countries worldwide. Due to the high level of volatility and influence of external factors on raw materials and packaging costs, which is a significant part of the production cost overall, the business required a reliable, fast and flexible IT solution for forecasting and analyzing the cost of materials in order to make effective decisions in managing our profitability.

The automation of the Carlsberg’s materials forecasting and cost analysis process was implemented in five months using Anaplan, a cloud-based integrated planning platform:

• A real-time material cost calculation tool for five countries in the Eastern Europe cluster was created, taking into account the specifics of each country;
• A single data warehouse for five cluster countries was set up;
• A new functionality of variance analysis calculation for all target indicators was implemented;
• Models for calculation of forecasted purchase prices for key categories were configured;
• The assumptions management and direct cost calculation module was configured;
• Financial month-end closing process was automated;
• Various reporting options as part of the targeting process were automated.

• An integrated process for quarterly and annual cost planning of purchased materials was built for five countries;
• Time for cost planning of procured materials was reduced;
• The process became transparent to all participants;
• Accuracy and reliability of forecasts were significantly improved;
• Probability of errors was minimized;
• Key drivers of changes in material costs were visualized;
• Additional opportunities for cost optimization were identified;
• The work of regional finance and procurement teams was significantly simplified.