More than 20 million plant-based products shipped with Xentral

Meet vly: no-compromise plant-based 

The team behind vly has been developing sustainable alternatives to cow’s milk since 2018. The star ingredient in their plant-based milk is pea protein from yellow split peas. The drinks are high in protein and fiber and froth beautifully for coffee, which is why the barista version is a bestseller that just keeps selling.

“Our products are built to help people reach their full potential. With plant-based options that actually taste good,” says co-founder and nutrition expert Nicolas Hartmann, summing up the startup’s vision. That’s why his team is always tweaking the recipes and working on new flavors, without compromising on taste or nutrition.

Today, vly is on shelves across German grocery retail and has strong B2B partners like REWE, EDEKA and Kaufland. Direct sales to retail now make up the biggest share of revenue and bring their own set of challenges: a lot of pallet logistics, large volumes, and a ton of back-and-forth coordination.

What vly needed from an ERP: a foundation that could keep up with lift-off 

vly figured it out early: if you want to grow, you need one central system that grows with you. Running smooth e-commerce is one thing. B2B is a different beast entirely. In B2B, what counts is:

• Automated processes
• Transparent inventory levels
• Reliable invoicing
• Smooth communication with retail partners

With that in mind, vly went looking for an ERP with the right features for a food and beverage business and has stuck with the one they picked back in 2019.

From manual work to AI-powered forecasts and one-click workflows 

Adrian Gellissen, Logistics & Operations Manager, has been a Xentral user at vly since day one. He and his team got the D2C side up and running quickly. B2B came along more gradually.

“At the start, a lot of it was still manual, especially on the B2B side,” Adrian remembers. Today, every B2B order flows into the ERP automatically. A quick check against order quantity and inventory is all it takes to release every order with a single click. Invoicing is the same story: bundled and sent with one click.

For forecast planning, the vly team runs a combination of Google Sheets and Xentral reports that can be customized with AI. “With Xentral’s AI Copilot, we can build custom SQL reports without a hassle and pull the data straight into our sheet. That makes planning a lot easier,” says Adrian. His team can pull today’s stock levels on demand and sharpen their sales forecasts.

The EDI integration also keeps the data flow with grocery partners like REWE, EDEKA, and Kaufland running smoothly. Every order and invoice lands in the system automatically - no PDFs, no manual errors.

What has changed for vly with Xentral 

With Xentral as its ERP, vly has kept its core processes lean and efficient year after year, and has grown sustainably on a tight product lineup at an annual growth rate of 70%. In its founding year, the team already processed 25,000 orders through the online shop. Today, more than 20 million liters of their plant drink have ended up in fans’ bowls, porridges, and coffees.

To keep that going, vly and Xentral launched a broad optimization push in 2024. “We refined things like the order handoff to our logistics providers and the B2B invoice process. At 400 to 600 orders a month, that’s a serious win; it easily saves us five hours a week,” Adrian says.

Even though vly is already a top three brand in the refrigerator aisle, the team’s ambitions aren’t slowing down. New product variants and more process automation are on the roadmap. The foundation for all of it: an ERP that keeps up at every growth stage. “We’re really happy with where we are today,” Adrian says. “And we know Xentral has us set up for what comes next.”