Legacy Systems Created Missed Orders and Missed Revenue

Charlie’s Meat is a multi-generation foodservice distributor founded in 1971, delivering pork, chicken, and beef to restaurants and large restaurant chains across the Greater Toronto Area. While the business had operated successfully for decades, the company had underinvested in technology for years. As a result, their internal systems were increasingly out of step with modern customer expectations.

Before Pepper (and their investment in a new ERP), their legacy ERP system lacked the basic tools needed to support efficient ordering. It couldn’t produce customer catalogs, display order history, or highlight normal ordering habits. That created a real operational gap: customers could forget key items in an order, and the Charlie’s Meat team often had no way of catching those missing products before the delivery went out.

Jonathan Wong, Manager at Charlie’s Meat, explained how this directly translated into missed revenue and customer frustration: “If a cook realized something was missing after delivery, it was already too late. The customer would call back asking for urgent same-day fulfillment, creating a scramble for the distributor and a poor experience for the restaurant.” As Jonathan put it, “It’s a missed opportunity and that for sure affects our business sales revenue everything.”

He summarized the expectation clearly: “They’re allowed to make mistakes. We’re not allowed to.”

At the same time, customer expectations were changing. Ordering behavior had shifted toward mobile and self-serve experiences, and Charlie’s Meat wanted to meet that shift head-on. Jonathan noted that in today’s world, “It’s now 2026, everyone’s got a cell phone,”. The company was ready for change.

A Mobile-First Ordering App Powered by Real Product Content

Charlie’s Meat first implemented a new ERP system, FDS, as a foundational upgrade. Once that was in place, the next step was improving the ordering experience for customers.

That’s where Pepper came in. Pepper enabled Charlie’s Meat to build the “Charlie’s Meat app” they envisioned: An ordering experience designed for restaurant buyers who increasingly expect to browse and purchase from their phones.

As the catalog buildout began, the team quickly identified a major blocker: Product Content. Prior to Pepper, Charlie’s Meat had no content in their catalog at all. When asked about their product coverage before Pepper, Jonathan’s answer was simple: “Zero. We didn’t have photos at all.”

Supplier images weren’t a reliable fallback either. Some vendors provided spec sheets with product images, but many suppliers either didn’t offer photos at all or only had old, blurry images that weren’t suitable for a modern digital storefront. Jonathan described supplier content as often being “from five plus years ago” and “really blurry.”

To solve this, the Charlie’s Meat team began taking their own product photos directly in the warehouse. But warehouse lighting and raw product presentation made it difficult to create consistent, appetizing visuals. Jonathan pointed out the challenge bluntly: “It’s not a finished cooked product… how good can a raw piece of meat look like, right?”

Pepper’s Image Enhancement made the difference. Jonathan described the tool as “very convenient,” explaining that he could snap photos quickly and then use Pepper to clean them up and make them far more presentable. The AI enhancement transformed difficult raw photos into images that looked professional and consistent for customers browsing the catalog.

In one example, Jonathan referenced a bagged chicken product photo that looked terrible when taken in real life. "I thought that literally looks like a bag of crap," he said. But after using Pepper's AI generator, "it made it look like how it should look… it recreated it perfectly. It's exactly how it should look."

From Zero Product Images to a Customer-Ready Digital Catalog

Within weeks, Charlie’s Meat significantly upgraded the quality and completeness of their digital catalog. While the company has a large SKU list overall, Jonathan estimated that they have now achieved approximately 80% image coverage on their most important day-to-day products. As he put it, “for our main movers… things that are most important to our business that we sell on the day-to-day, at least 80%.”

That focus on fast-moving SKUs ensured the catalog improvements directly supported the items that drive the majority of customer purchasing and revenue.

Beyond catalog quality, Pepper positioned Charlie’s Meat to deliver a stronger customer ordering experience overall. With improved product visibility and a mobile-first ordering app connected to their ERP, the company is reducing the likelihood of missed items, improving customer confidence, and creating a smoother repeat ordering workflow.

Finally, Jonathan highlighted Pepper’s implementation process and communication as a key part of the success. He noted that Pepper consistently kept his team aligned, especially during ERP coordination, saying, “I feel like you guys have really good follow up… you’ve kept me and my team in the loop.” Pepper and FDS worked together seamlessly to both make Charlie's implementation successful. After working with many vendors, he emphasized that Pepper stood out: “I’ve dealt with people who are very poor at following up and I’ve dealt with people who are great with follow-up and you guys were definitely in the great column for sure.”