How Thomas Foods USA automated 90%+ of utility data collection

Thomas Foods USA oversees several production and distribution facilities across the country, each with its own set of suppliers for electricity, gas, water, and waste. As the company grew, so did the complexity of gathering, processing, and analyzing utility data. What started as a small administrative task quickly ballooned into a major undertaking for the operations and finance teams. Inconsistent invoice formats, scattered portals, and delayed data made it hard to pinpoint where costs were highest or to gauge progress toward sustainability targets.

“Using Nectar has significantly streamlined the process of gathering and analyzing our utility data. The platform just works!” says Jonathan Reinbold of Thomas Foods USA. His enthusiasm reflects the relief of a team that had spent too many hours each month logging into different portals, downloading invoices, and merging data into spreadsheets. Thomas Foods USA recognized that these manual processes, while necessary, were costly in terms of time and prone to human error. They also saw growing interest among customers and regulators in more transparent reporting on environmental metrics—meaning they needed greater confidence in their data.

Challenges

Before partnering with Nectar, Thomas Foods USA grappled with assembling cost and usage data for multiple services, and encountered missing invoices, billing discrepancies, or late submissions. Without a consolidated view of their facilities’ monthly consumption, identifying anomalies or areas for cost reduction became a guessing game. Furthermore, the company’s aspiration to strengthen its ESG performance meant it needed robust, accurate records to monitor water usage, electricity consumption, and waste output.

Solution

Thomas Foods USA turned to Nectar to automate data collection for utilities including electricity, water, gas, and waste. Rather than forcing local teams to manually upload invoices, Nectar seamlessly connected with various utility providers’ portals—where available—and set up e-bill forwarding for those without accessible online dashboards. Invoices and usage reports were then parsed automatically, and advanced data validation checks flagged potential gaps or irregularities.

In practice, Thomas Foods USA noticed the immediate advantage of having a dedicated system that required minimal human intervention. Previously, staff spent hours each month downloading invoices or reminding local managers to submit them. With Nectar in place, invoice data arrived in near-real time, ensuring no critical numbers went missing. The automation also lent itself to better collaboration; the finance and operations groups could rely on a single source of truth for each facility’s cost and consumption data. Questions like, “Why did this site’s water usage spike?” could be answered more quickly.

Results

By automating roughly 90% of their utility data collection, Thomas Foods USA unlocked significant time savings and a far clearer overview of their operations. Where employees once spent valuable hours hunting down and reconciling invoices, they can now dedicate that energy to analyzing trends and making more strategic decisions. The consolidated data also illuminated critical cost hot spots—facilities where gas usage ran unusually high, for instance—so managers could drill down into possible causes, whether that meant resolving equipment issues, reevaluating maintenance routines, or revisiting supplier contracts.

Another key benefit was the boost in confidence around ESG reporting. Thomas Foods USA had been working toward setting broader sustainability metrics, but inconsistencies in data sometimes undermined the credibility of its external disclosures. Thanks to the structured, fully-auditable data flows in Nectar, discrepancies are now easier to detect and resolve quickly. This increased data accuracy not only satisfies internal targets but also provides stakeholders with more transparent, reliable information.

For Thomas Foods USA, moving from a fragmented manual process to an automated, centralized platform was a major step forward in both operational efficiency and sustainability management. The company no longer worries about potential human error or lost invoices. Instead, managers can focus on assessing trends, measuring performance, and making proactive moves to lower costs and reduce environmental impact. Now that this new framework is in place, Thomas Foods USA is well-equipped to broaden its reporting, track emerging sustainability metrics, and stay agile in a fast-changing business landscape.