Clorox expects supply chain optimization gains from ERP migration this fiscal year

Quick Overview

• Clorox Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Luc Bellet said on the August 3 earnings call that the company expects to realize optimization benefits from migrating its U.S. supply chain to a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system starting this fiscal year. Meeting transcript available at Seeking Alpha。
• The home cleaning and consumer goods manufacturer expects improved supply chain productivity through better planning, lower inventory levels, and more automatable tasks, Bellet told investors.
• "You can make the supply chain more responsive to changes in demand signals, and in some cases even proactive," Bellet said.

Deep Dive

Clorox began migrating its U.S. supply chain and other business operations to a new ERP system in 2025, replacing legacy technology used for decades, as reported by Supply Chain Dive. However, the migration has not been smooth. Due to slower-than-expected ERP system rollout, the company incurred additional expenses in resolving demand fulfillment disruptions, as detailed in previous coverage。

"It's good to see the cost noise and volatility from this large, complex implementation project starting to become a thing of the past," Bellet told investors this month.

Bellet noted that Clorox has integrated business planning into the ERP system, expecting efficiency gains in demand fulfillment and order-to-cash processes. Overall, the company has shifted from manual operations relying on spreadsheets to now "fairly automated" processes.

This large-scale ERP upgrade rebuilt the company's data infrastructure—part of a five-year, $500 million digital project launched in 2021, with background available at Supply Chain Dive. Such technology migrations, if not executed well, can lead to tens of millions of dollars in additional costs, such as in the case of J&J Snack Foods。

In recent years, other consumer goods manufacturers have also undergone ERP transformations, including Mondelēz International's $1.2 billion project (see coverage), as well as Scotts Miracle-Gro (conference call transcript at Seeking Alpha) and Nestle's cloud-based SAP S/4HANA system (see coverage）。