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How a bee farm uses Orca Scan to grow

Read how Orca Scan is helping small businesses by providing the opportunity to digitalise their inventory.

Philip Apeldoorn from Imkerij De Drakenbijen.
Philip Apeldoorn from Imkerij De Drakenbijen.

Meet Philip, a bee farmer with an inventory problem…

Philip Apeldoorn runs a commercial bee farm in the Netherlands and has recently started selling his products in local shops.

As a small business, Philip was relying on a pen-and-paper system to do his inventory.

However, pen and paper systems often have higher security risks as they can be lost, damaged or stolen. They are difficult to transport, have higher storage costs and are not easy to edit.

Philip was also finding that his pen and paper system was exposing human errors.

It always seemed to get lost, and when I had to type everything into an excel sheet, I always made mistakes… I’m a good beekeeper, and I prefer to work with the bees than deal with the administration
Philip ApeldoornFounderImkerij De Drakenbijen

He needed an inventory system that would help him with his admin and stock inventory but wouldn’t cost him more than his profit.


A little bit of context…

Starting his career as a landscaper, Philip has always been passionate about preserving the natural environment 🪴 He fell in love with the magic of bees and understanding how threatened they are as a species, he retrained as a beekeeper.

Philip is now a small business owner and public speaker, helping businesses to be a ‘bit more bee’ by working together, educating school children on the importance of protecting the eco-system and training others to be beekeepers too! 🐝

I can not change the world alone, but hey, at least I’m trying!
Philip ApeldoornFounderImkerij De Drakenbijen

From his farm, Philip relies on beehive adoption and selling bee-related products such as candles, skincare and more to make a profit.

Working with brands like Orca Scan helps to ensure his small business can run efficiently and successfully… and in return, we’ve been able to name our very own bee, Buzz Lightyear. We’re told she’s pictured in the image below 👀

One of the hives at Imkerij De Drakenbijen, featuring our own bee Buzz Lightyear.
One of the hives at Imkerij De Drakenbijen, featuring our own bee Buzz Lightyear.

How has Orca Scan provided a solution?

Using Orca Scan, Philip has been able to ditch the hassle of a pen and paper inventory.

He simply scans the barcodes of the products in-store using his phone, and as the data is synchronised in real-time, his inventory is up to date.

Thanks to Orca Scan, I have found a solution that works for me without needing any additional programming knowledge
Philip ApeldoornFounderImkerij De Drakenbijen

By switching to digital inventory using barcodes, Philip can increase productivity by 25% and see a rapid return on investment by lowering his operating costs once implemented.

Before now, this wouldn’t have been possible for people like Phillip. Due to their expense, digital inventory is often reserved for large corporate companies. By providing affordable solutions, Orca Scan is helping to democratise this technology for everyone and helping small businesses grow.


Thank You

Thank you to Philip for sharing his story about how using Orca Scan has helped him to make a success of his small business.

Do you have a story to tell? Get in touch!

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