Fueling Expansion: How Odoo Helped DV Brands Go Global

Location/Region: Sylmar, CA
Industry: Distribution/E-Liquids
Apps implemented: Project, Accounting, Planning, Inventory, Contacts, Calendar
Software Replaced: Excel and BigCommerce
Number of users: 10
Company size: 100
Hosting type: Odoo.sh

In recent years, vaping has become a popular alternative to traditional smoking, offering a wide variety of flavors and experiences through e-liquids. While the industry only continues to grow and evolve, so too do the companies that strive to meet the needs of a diverse and dynamic market. One such company is DV Brands, whose journey through the competitive world of vaping has been nothing short of remarkable. 

DV Brands was founded in 2015, starting as a small e-liquid shop on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. After finding success selling e-liquids for vapes, the business began manufacturing and distributing its own products. From there, its success only grew, especially when the FDA stepped in and began heavily regulating the industry. This led to some companies, such as DV Brands, to step up to meet these new expectations successfully, leading to tremendous growth. Meanwhile, other, smaller competitors ended up selling their businesses to larger companies such as DV Brands. Gerald Arreglado, Head of Marketing at the company, comments on what made DV Brands so successful in comparison to competitors during this critical period in the industry:

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Our company was investing in the right tools and systems, such as Odoo, in order to scale.

Today, DV Brands primarily sells e-liquid products, as well as disposable and reusable vape devices. Having expanded its operations and acquired other brands in recent years, the company needed the right business management software to help support its success. This is where Odoo comes in.

Gerald explains that when he first started at DV Brands about five years ago, the company didn’t have much established when it came to business software. He says that they were primarily using a combination of Excel spreadsheets and rudimentary systems. However, as the company began to grow, management began realizing that they needed a system in place to track production, inventory, and maintenance. 

DV Brands initially decided on BigCommerce, and for about a year, the platform worked well enough for the company. With them, DV Brands was able to build out a system to connect the production, warehouse inventory, and sales categories of the business. However, it lacked a certain level of flexibility that the business needed for daily operations. As a company within the vape industry, DV Brands needed software that could be customized to help it adhere to different standards, such as new state regulations and tax codes. States such as Alabama and Texas, for example, require different tax rates and specific paperwork that needs to be submitted with every purchase order compared to other states. All of these necessary capabilities seemed more easily manageable with a switch to Odoo:

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We needed a platform that was capable of tracking the different states and the requirements they were going to need, which we felt BigCommerce couldn't do but Odoo could.

DV Brands officially went live with Odoo around four years ago, and Gerald says that while the process was lengthy due to the company’s very specific requirements, it was an overall positive experience.

With Odoo, Gerald says DV Brands is better able to keep records of specific state paperwork in case the company ever gets audited. Odoo also allows them to process different payments correctly so that they can report them accurately to the local government. Around the time DV Brands switched over to Odoo, the company also began expanding globally, using Odoo as the platform of choice to roll out different warehouse and inventory systems in various parts of Europe. Odoo’s multiple warehouse capabilities, as well as its multi-currencies available within the software, made managing a global business much easier.

On a day-to-day basis, Odoo has been especially helpful when it comes to project management. The Project module has been the most useful application, particularly for Gerald and his marketing team, because it allows them to open and close projects per client and per sales representative. It also makes keeping track of completed tasks easier, allowing employees to refer back to things in the system at a later date should a similar project come up in the future. Gerald explains that being able to manage different projects simultaneously has been “really instrumental.” 

In an overarching sense, DV Brands has realized that Odoo has so many more tools than it even initially realized. Gerald says that the company’s focus now is to use Odoo more and more for different aspects of the business. As DV Brands continues to grow globally, Odoo is giving the company the flexibility to navigate the nuances of the vape industry with ease. 

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