q.beyond Lands Vitakraft SAP Migration Mandate, But Shares Retreat

Vitakraft picks q.beyond for its SAP S/4HANA brownfield move under SAP RISE, hosted on STACKIT. Financial terms were not disclosed.

q.beyond has secured a fresh transformation contract, with pet food manufacturer Vitakraft selecting the Cologne-based IT services provider as consulting, implementation and licensing partner for its move to SAP S/4HANA. The deal, announced Wednesday, builds on a joint preliminary study the two companies had already completed.

Investors, however, greeted the news with little enthusiasm. The stock slipped 4.0% to EUR 3.34 in Wednesday trading, leaving the company valued at EUR 86.21 million.

Brownfield Approach Keeps Existing Systems Alive

The modernization project sits within the SAP RISE cloud program and follows a brownfield migration path, meaning Vitakraft will carry over its existing systems and historical data into the new environment rather than starting from scratch. The aim is to preserve proven process structures while bringing the system landscape up to current standards.

For ongoing operations, the project has opted for cloud provider STACKIT, a choice driven by Vitakraft's desire to keep data hosted sovereignly within Germany — a nod to the regulatory and security requirements surrounding European corporate data. That shared data foundation is also intended to enable GDPR-compliant use of artificial intelligence across business processes.

Warehouse, Transport and Data Modules in Scope

Several specialized components from the Walldorf software group feature in the platform's planned functionality. Warehouse management will be standardized through SAP Extended Warehouse Management (EWM), while SAP Cloud for Transportation Management is slated for implementation. Existing SAP BW data structures are to be developed further into SAP BDC.

The broader overhaul targets core operational areas, with far-reaching automation planned across procurement, sales and finance to sharpen data transparency company-wide. Vitakraft is pursuing closer digital integration of its organizational core, pairing faster operations with improved visibility — and laying the groundwork for AI-based applications down the line.

Financial Terms Stay Under Wraps

Neither party disclosed the contract's financial volume, its exact duration, or a target date for completing the migration. As a result, it remains unclear how much the engagement will contribute to q.beyond's revenue in the current fiscal year.

Even so, the mandate reinforces q.beyond's positioning as a transformation partner for the upper midmarket, adding another reference customer for cloud and SAP migration work.