How Premier Foods Modernised Group Consolidation by Moving IBM Controller to the Cloud

IBM Business Analytics Solution – IBM Controller

Services – Cloud Migration

About Premier Foods

Based in St Albans, Hertfordshire, Premier Foods owns and manufactures many of the UK’s best-loved food brands, including Ambrosia, Mr Kipling, Sharwoods, Oxo, Bisto, Batchelors and Cadbury cakes. Listed on the London Stock Exchange, Premier Foods employs more than 4,000 people across 15 manufacturing sites and offices throughout the UK.

The Challenge

Premier Foods had been running IBM Controller on-premises for many years, successfully supporting their group consolidation processes. However, the system was on an older version, and the team wanted to modernise without the risk of falling behind on future upgrades. Maintaining the system internally placed an ongoing burden on IT, particularly around patching, upgrades and long-term support. Premier Foods wanted a solution that would keep their consolidation platform up to date, improve resilience and reduce internal maintenance effort.

Moving IBM Controller to the cloud offered a clear path forward, shifting responsibility for upgrades and system maintenance to IBM while strengthening auditability and compliance.

The Solution

Aramar worked with Premier Foods to upgrade their existing IBM Controller environment and migrate it fully to the cloud. The project included upgrading to a modern version of IBM Controller with the latest consolidation engine, migrating the application and database to a cloud-based environment, and enabling newer functionality such as Controller Web.

Throughout the migration, Aramar provided expert guidance to ensure a smooth transition with minimal disruption to finance and IT teams.

The Results

The move to IBM Controller on Cloud was completed successfully, giving Premier Foods access to the latest software version without the ongoing concern of managing upgrades internally. With IBM now responsible for patches and future updates, the IT team has reduced maintenance overhead and have greater confidence in system stability. The finance team benefits from a more robust and controlled consolidation process, supported by improved audit readiness.

As part of the project, Aramar also helped Premier Foods implement stronger contributor workflows, ensuring data can only be submitted once complete and validated. This has improved data quality and reduced risk during the consolidation cycle.

With the cloud migration complete, both finance and IT teams now have more time to focus on strategic priorities, supported by a modern, future-proof consolidation platform.