Matco Chemicals Group

The opportunity: Integrate and modernize

Matco Chemicals Group provides services and solutions to the global chemical industry. Headquartered in Belgium, Matco Chemicals generates around €100 million in revenue and employs approximately 100 people across four manufacturing sites in three countries.

When Matco Chemicals acquired a latex compounding business from Synthomer PLC, the company immediately recognized that it needed to integrate the new unit swiftly to optimize synergies and minimize costs, as well as implement one robust technology operating system to bring a single source of truth across the entities. At the same time, Matco Chemicals was already seeking a modern, cloud-based ERP solution that would provide flexibility to adapt to an evolving business landscape while supporting its long-term growth ambitions.

Matco CEO, John Blydenstein, contacted KPMG in Belgium to conduct a standalone analysis on the acquisition into the parent company. Matco Chemicals then chose KPMG in Belgium to implement SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition due to the delivery team’s extensive SAP experience and technical expertise, the firm’s global reach and capability to deliver a multi-country solution, and its trusted and ongoing business relationship with Matco Chemical’s private-equity owner.

Matco Chemicals engaged KPMG professionals to:

Seamlessly integrate the acquired business unit into Matco Chemicals Group’s operations with a scope of three countries (Belgium, Netherlands, and Egypt), four plants, and three entities.
Harmonize processes across the entire group while ensuring standardization in line with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition best practices.
Drive effective change management to enable the 100 users to transition from SAP ECC and legacy systems to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.
Establish a robust IT infrastructure to support global expansion, enhance operational efficiency, and strengthen data-driven decision-making.

To help ensure cost efficiencies, KPMG and Matco Chemicals agreed to an aggressive eight-month timeline to complete the digital transformation.

The KPMG response: Combine SAP Activate with KPMG Powered Enterprise

The ambitious transformation required a structured approach, balancing speed with precision to ensure both business continuity and future scalability. KPMG leveraged SAP Activate, an innovative adoption process designed to facilitate the implementation of SAP solutions, particularly SAP S/4HANA. SAP Activate fast-tracks implementation, with reduced risk, greater flexibility, enhanced collaboration, and a spirit of continuous improvement. SAP Activate, in combination with KPMG’s digital transformation solutions, could deliver an accelerated yet structured SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition implementation.

KPMG professionals built the approach on four key principles:

A client-first approach: Which began with Matco’s business processes rather than the technology solution to ensure the ERP transformation would align with operational goals and business needs.
Holistic design beyond process, people, and technology: In addition to the core SAP Activate focus areas, KPMG specialists incorporated additional design layers critical to building a scalable and compliant solution: (i) Data: Defining the right KPIs and data models to enable insightful decision-making; (ii) Service Delivery Model: Clarifying which teams would execute specific business activities; and (iii) Risk & Controls: Embedding compliance and audit-ready controls from the start to minimize risks.
End-to-end process coverage: While SAP Activate focuses on processes executed within SAP, the KPMG Powered Enterprise methodology goes beyond, to address all relevant process steps including those occurring outside the ERP to ensure a seamless end-to-end business transformation. Further, KPMG process taxonomy overlaid SAP scope items that were identified in digital discovery assessments conducted early on in the project.
Industry-specific insights: The KPMG team utilized specific industry knowledge to optimize the SAP solution for the chemical sector's unique needs, delivering tangible business value.

Working collaboratively with Matco Chemicals, KPMG professionals launched the transformation journey with a clear plan to help the client become more agile. The strategy encompassed four important phases.

Vision: Defining the strategic roadmap and ensuring alignments between business objectives and system capabilities.
Validate: Translating the design into a concrete and executable plan.
Construct: Focusing on building, testing, and iterating the solution in an incremental and agile manner.
Deploy: Shifting the focus to data migration, user training, and system readiness to successfully launch go-live.

Other SAP products included: SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), Application Lifecycle Management, SAP Document and Reporting Compliance, SAP Invoice Management. Notably, SAP BTP enabled KPMG professionals to build separate applications to build and print custom labels for Matco products.

KPMG professionals took our key project drivers seriously and kept them at the forefront: Integrate our newly acquired business as seamlessly as possible, manage transition costs, implement an ERP solution to work across country borders, and enable end users to hit the ground running – all done expeditiously. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was the best solution for us, with KPMG in Belgium as the proficient implementation adviser.

John Blydenstein

Managing Director

Matco Chemicals Group

The outcome: A swift transition without business disruption

KPMG professionals delivered the project on time and within budget, allowing Matco Chemicals to become fully operational within the eight-month timeline, as planned. By implementing powerful SAP technology, Matco Chemicals has streamlined its operations across all business units.

Like any digital transformation, change management was a key success factor. Transitioning from SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is more than just a system upgrade – it’s a shift in how users interact with their data and systems. By starting training early, users can become familiar with the new SAP environment before UAT, allowing them to focus on testing business processes rather than just learning the system from scratch.

The short implementation timeline required the KPMG team to be laser focused. With no like-for-like replacement for SAP ECC customizations, rapid yet thoughtful decision-making was critical. KPMG professionals led the SAP implementation in a way that engaged leadership early to align priorities, avoiding "analysis paralysis." This way, the team prioritized finding solutions while remaining agile throughout.

Ultimately, the project has enabled a seamless integration of the acquired business unit while establishing a scalable, future-proof IT landscape to support Matco Chemical's growth ambitions.