HC Brands is a fast-growing and complex business based in Jacksonville. Over the last seven years, it has added seven new brands to its portfolio of personalised products. As the company grew, it needed to update its internal solutions. After what one assumes was a careful selection process, it selected NetSuite. Owner and CFO of HC Brands, Steve Fernandez commented: “NetSuite is a premier Business Management Solution for mid-size e-commerce and manufacturing companies, and we are excited to embark on a journey of upgrading all of our back-office systems with a great partner.”
To support the platform, HC Brands is also looking to hire a new NetSuite Administrator/Developer to work with the NetSuite partner during implementation, and further help extend the solution.
The challenge
HC Brands designs, manufactures, and retails personalized products across ten websites, including its key brands:
- Simply Stamps: Personalised rubber stamps
- Name Tag wizard.com: Personalised name tags
- Custom CS Signs: Including ADA compliant signs, engraved signs
- Promo180⁰: Branded promotion merchandise
- The Corporate Collection: High-quality personalised workplace products for professional services
- All State Notary Supplies: State-approved notary supplies and stamps
- 904 Custom: Personalised products for the consumer market
- Wall Monkeys: Pre-printed wall decals for use in the home or office.
HC Brands has ten eCommerce sites, some of which use Shopify and Amazon. The company needed a solution that would integrate easily now and to allow for future growth. NetSuite provides the manufacturing, distribution management, finance and eCommerce connections that will enable it to get better control and visibility of its operations. It is unclear exactly which NetSuite modules it has purchased, but it should fit into its existing architecture.
HC Brands Chief Technology Officer, Jim Gruhn commented: “In a business that is growing as fast as HC Brands, at more than 40%, we have to continue to invest in technology and build capabilities that can scale with our growth. We are excited to add NetSuite to our suite of capabilities and leverage their world-class tools to help us scale up our business. We believe their solutions and their team will be a great partnership for us,”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
HC Brands is just beginning its journey with NetSuite. However, in the last few years, the company has radically transformed. Founded in 1954, in recent years it has moved sales completely online. NetSuite will provide the glue that will enable it to scale further and extend its operations. If it chooses to do so, Netsuite could also provide it with the means to extend into international markets.
Owner and CEO Bryan Croft noted: “As an entrepreneur and business owner, my passion is to grow a successful high tech, e-commerce business. Although it seems scary to completely re-platform our backend systems while the company is seeing such momentum, I believe we must keep investing in technology, and we have a great team to make this successful.”
Croft has decided to re-platform, and yet he presumably has little option. In an increasingly competitive market and with ambitions to grow, NetSuite will provide the platform that will enable HC Brands to continue its expansion once implemented. Once complete this could be a very interesting case study for NetSuite.
