Ela Family Farms Boosts Wholesale Efficiency with Local Line

Ela Family Farms has been growing fruit in Colorado since 1907, earning a reputation for quality and sustainability that spans over a century. They currently grow over 50 varieties of organic peaches, cherries, plums, pears, apples, heirloom tomatoes, and rhubarb. With wholesale sales making up 40% of their business, Ela Family Farms supplies local grocery stores, restaurants, food hubs, and even school districts.

Managing such a diverse and demanding wholesale operation was no small feat for the small, tightly knit team. As Regan Choi, assistant manager of Ela Family Farms, explained, “We’re a small business without specialized departments. There are three of us managing everything beyond the physical labor of farming.” From hiring and training to creating invoices, managing inventory and ensuring compliance with food safety standards, the business's administrative side was increasingly challenging, especially during the busy harvest season.

Recognizing the inefficiencies in their current system and the growing complexity of their operations, Ela Family Farms sought a solution to help them save time, streamline processes, and scale effectively. They found that solution in Local Line—a software designed specifically for farms like theirs.

Growing pains of wholesale sales

Ela Family Farms had been managing their wholesale sales using a combination of tools, including Google Docs for invoicing and email for communication. While these systems worked initially, they became cumbersome and inefficient as the farm scaled operations. Key challenges emerged, including:

Getting paid on time by wholesale buyers

Wholesale operations often involve complex invoicing with multiple buyers, payment schedules, and overdue accounts. The Ela team found themselves bogged down by year-end reconciliations. As Regan described, “During harvest season, we’re just overwhelmed. At the end of the year, we’d go back to our invoices and realize some accounts hadn’t been paid in months.”

Without an automated system, keeping track of overdue invoices became a time-intensive manual process that added stress to an already busy schedule.

Food safety compliance

Operating as a vertically integrated farm, Ela Family Farms handles every step of the process—from growing and harvesting to packing, warehousing, and delivery. This means ensuring the full traceability of their products, especially lot codes, which is critical for meeting food safety regulations. However, their existing tools didn’t support efficient tracking.

“We had struggled to find an invoicing platform which could support traceability,” says Regan. “We do everything in-house, and keeping track of lot codes for recalls or compliance was incredibly tedious.”

Managing dynamic and seasonal inventory

Ela Family Farms faced frequent changes in their inventory due to the seasonal nature of their products and the specific demands of their wholesale clients. Updating inventory lists throughout the busy season was time-consuming. “If we’re constantly changing up platforms to reflect what’s in stock, it sucks up time that’s already scarce,” noted Regan.

Limited resources and time

With only three team members managing all non-labor roles, time is at a premium. Tasks, like manually downloading invoices, emailing them to multiple buyers, and entering data across platforms take away from more critical work. 

These challenges highlighted the need for a unified, efficient solution that could handle invoicing, traceability, and seasonal inventory changes in a way that aligned with Ela Family Farms’ operations.

The Solution: Implementing Local Line

When Ela Family Farms adopted Local Line, they quickly realized the platform addressed many pain points. Local Line is designed to help farms and producers streamline their sales and simplify administrative tasks. For Ela Family Farms, the software became a game changer in their wholesale operations.

The key features that make a difference

Automatic invoicing and payment reminders 

One of the first benefits Ela Family Farms noticed was the ability to automate invoicing and flag overdue accounts. Local Line’s system automatically sends payment reminders to clients, ensuring the farm gets paid on time without additional manual follow-up. “The automatic reminders have been huge for us,” said Regan. “Instead of spending hours tracking down payments, the system does it for us. It saved us from the end-of-year chaos of reconciling invoices.”

In addition to automatic invoices, the Ela team leverages the ability to add custom line items to invoices.  This feature allows them to add specialty or small-quantity items directly to invoices for specific customers rather than listing it in their general price list. As a result, they can sell and invoice efficiently without maintaining or constantly updating a long inventory list. “Customizable invoices make a big difference for us,” Regan noted. “We can reflect inventory changes without spending hours updating our system.”

Streamlined Workflow 

Local Line allows Ela Family Farms to send invoices directly via email, eliminating the need to download and manually attach them to emails. “Being able to just hit ‘send’ on an invoice instead of going through multiple steps is much more efficient,” says Regan. This functionality may seem small, but it saves their team hours of manual work each week.

The benefits of using Local Line for their wholesale operations

By using Local Line, Ela Family Farms has significantly streamlined their wholesale operations, saving time and reducing stress during their busiest seasons. The impact of the platform can be seen across multiple areas:

1. Time savings: Automating invoicing and reminders has freed up hours each week for the Ela team. Tasks that once required multiple steps and manual oversight are now completed with just a few clicks.
2. Improved workflows for traceability: By adding lot codes to individual outgoing invoices, Ela Family Farms can ensure compliance with food safety regulations and streamlined record keeping. Importantly, if a recall event were to occur, all recipients of a particular lot code can be found and notified with a simple search of seconds rather than having to spend hours manually looking back at each individual invoice.
3. Increased efficiency: From customizable invoices to direct email capabilities, Local Line has helped Ela Family Farms reduce administrative burden and focus on what they do best: growing and delivering high-quality produce.
4. Great customer support: The responsiveness of the Local Line team has been a standout feature for Ela Family Farms. Whether listening to what functionality their team needs or providing onboarding support, the Local Line team has consistently exceeded expectations.

“Your team is always super friendly and responsive,” Regan shared. “That’s been great. It’s one of the reasons we’ve stuck with Local Line for years.”

Advice for other farms doing wholesale: Lessons from Ela Family Farms

Regan offers valuable insights for other farms looking to scale their wholesale operations:

1. Invest in traceability: “Food safety requirements are only becoming more rigorous. Having a system from the get-go that makes traceability easy is essential for scaling your business.”
2. Choose tools that save time: “Efficiency is key for small teams. Look for platforms like Local Line that automate repetitive tasks and let you focus on growth.”
3. Leverage support resources: “When we started with Local Line, the onboarding sessions were incredibly helpful. Don’t hesitate to ask for help and use the resources available to you.”

For Ela Family Farms, Local Line has been more than just a software platform—it’s been a partner in their journey toward greater efficiency and sustainability. By addressing critical challenges in invoicing and traceability, Local Line has enabled the farm to focus on their mission: delivering fresh, locally grown produce to their community.

As Regan summarized, “Local Line has been really helpful for us. We’ve stuck with it for years because it adapts to our changing needs and helps us stay efficient. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone managing wholesale operations.”

Ela Family Farms is proof that with the right tools, even small teams can achieve big results. Local Line has empowered them to streamline their processes, save time, and scale their operations—setting the stage for continued success in the years to come.