Case Study: Arla Foods achieves 30% faster month-end close and 98% process automation with Redwood Software

Multinational dairy cooperative reduces time to close by 30% and automates 98% of processes

Arla Foods, a global dairy cooperative owned by 9,400 farmers with 20,000 employees and sales in 153 countries, faced a fragmented account-to-report process after mergers in Germany and the UK. With only half of its Level 3 processes harmonized, teams relied on manual Excel checklists and locally stored documentation, creating inefficiencies, errors and limited visibility—Arla aimed to standardize processes and shorten the month‑end close by at least two days.

Arla implemented Redwood Finance Automation for its strong SAP integration and process orchestration, automating 121 of 124 close-related workflows. The automation cut the month‑end close from 10 to 7 days (a 30% reduction), automated 98% of close processes, reduced manual effort by up to 50% and sped reconciliations (e.g., from four hours to 30 minutes in one entity), while delivering real-time monitoring, improved data quality and full auditability.

Arla Foods

Brian Thomsen

Finance Director