How Gripp Custom Farming Corp. Is Doubling Its Business With NetSuite

Hitting The Ceiling

As Gripp Custom Farming grew, QuickBooks could no longer keep up. The company faced two significant challenges:

1. Complex Financial Management

Farm finances are unique. Gripp Custom Farming often buys large volumes of agricultural chemicals before the growing season, with payments deferred until after harvest. QuickBooks couldn’t accurately track these delayed payments, making cash flow planning difficult.

2. Inventory Tracking Across Multiple Locations

Gripp Custom Farming manages a vast inventory, including chemicals that must be tracked across locations and measured in various units. QuickBooks lacked real-time tracking, making stock management inefficient and increasing the risk of shortages or over-purchasing.

“Before NetSuite, we would have been buried in spreadsheets. The level of financial management required for our expansion would have been impossible with QuickBooks.”

– Michelle Dykstra, Strategic Development Director, Gripp Custom Farming Corp.

Expanding Beyond The Farm: A New Growth Strategy

With demand rising and its drone spraying operation covering 100,000 acres, Gripp Custom Farming needed a way to scale without overextending its resources. At the same time, young farmers in the community were looking for ways to stay on their family farms.

The solution? Franchising.

“Helping young farmers find a way to stay on their family farms was a big part of why we launched the franchise model. We wanted to create an opportunity for them to build their own businesses while benefiting from our experience and support.”

– Michelle Dykstra, Strategic Development Director, Gripp Custom Farming Corp.

NetSuite: The Key to Gripp’s Franchising Success

Switching to a franchise model added complexity to financial and operational processes. Gripp Custom Farming needed a system that could:

• Keep franchise and core business finances separate.
• Give franchisees controlled access to financial data.
• Automate invoicing and financial oversight.

Plative helped them set up NetSuite to support this shift, ensuring franchisees could manage their businesses while securing company data. The switch from QuickBooks wasn’t just an upgrade—it made the entire franchise model possible. Scaling wouldn’t have worked without a centralized system for financials, inventory, and real-time franchisee support. Today, franchising makes up a significant portion of the company’s total revenue. In just a few years, Gripp Custom Farming improved visibility into its core business and launched new revenue streams that wouldn’t have been possible without NetSuite.

“Franchising wouldn’t have been possible without NetSuite. We needed a system that could handle the complexity of multiple independent business units while still allowing us to provide support, track inventory, and streamline invoicing. QuickBooks just couldn’t do that.”

– Michelle Dykstra, Strategic Development Director, Gripp Custom Farming Corp.

Looking Ahead: Expanding and Reach

Gripp Custom Farming isn’t stopping at franchising. The company is launching its line of branded chemicals for drone applications, ensuring a reliable supply for franchisees.

Beyond agriculture, drone technology is also expanding into infrastructure industries like railroads and roadside maintenance, where it can improve efficiency and precision.