Donaghys, founded in Dunedin in 1876 as a rope maker, has grown into a New Zealand manufacturer spanning farming, horticulture and aquaculture products. As the business evolved – expanding its product mix and taking on manufacturing processes demanding far more traceability, control and planning precision, all under New Zealand’s agricultural compliance and accreditation requirements – its long-standing Dynamics AX ERP system reached the limits of what it could support.
CFO David Beattie, who oversees the company’s IT strategy, led the move to Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations with Fusion5, treating it not as a like-for-like replacement but as a chance to align the company’s systems with the business Donaghys had become over the past 20 years.
The result is a modernised platform for production planning, quality control and logistics that gives Donaghys the traceability and governance its compliance obligations demand, built on a system the business can keep evolving rather than one it has outgrown.
