Bakery software case studies

Cowell's have been making meringues and pavlovas for over 40 years, supplying supermarkets and food stores throughout New Zealand and Australia. As they expanded, their existing accounting software couldn't give them the visibility they needed to manage sales and customer data. GlobalBake now handles the financial and operational sides of the business, and its EDI capabilities automate much of their corporate sales activity.

Challenge

Better visibility of key sales and customer data as the business grew.

Solution

GlobalBake bakery management software, including EDI.

Result

Simpler management of a growing business, with accurate stock across every location.

Balthazar supplies restaurants, grocery stores and hotels across New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, producing over 400,000 units a month. They had outgrown their previous bakery software: it was unstable, slow to support and made it hard to track orders or see account status with a customer on the phone. After evaluating two products, they chose GlobalBake and went live without a hitch.

Challenge

Key business information needed faster and more easily, from a system they could rely on.

Solution

GlobalBake, replacing their ailing bakery package.

Result

Efficiency gains, clear recipe costing and margins, and tighter customer account management.

Earlyrise have used GlobalBake to run their business for many years. To make deliveries and returns more accurate, they gave their drivers mobile devices from Numeric Computer Systems (NCS), integrated with GlobalBake and their Toolbox warehouse system. Orders flow from GlobalBake to picking to the driver's handheld, and back again at the end of each run with no re-keying.

Challenge

Increase the accuracy and efficiency of deliveries and returns.

Solution

NCS mobile devices for drivers, integrated with GlobalBake.

Result

Far better delivery accuracy, less office data entry, and crates tracked and recovered.

United Baking, the manufacturing arm of the Uncle Wally's muffin brand, runs three high-speed baking lines in a 60,000 square foot plant and has grown by around 20% a year. When that growth outstripped their bakery software, they evaluated four vendors and chose GlobalBake to track production in detail, right down to individual shifts and labour costs.

Challenge

Business growth outstripping the capabilities of their bakery software.

Solution

Detailed tracking of key production data with the GlobalBake production module.

Result

Better control of production and distribution, and improved profitability per item and per line.

Red Hen's bread artists hand shape up to 2,000 loaves and 2,000 rolls a day for supermarkets and restaurants, with production cycles of up to 18 hours. Matching production to demand was their biggest challenge: returns were "the beast nobody could get their head around". GlobalBake's sales history and forecasting changed that almost immediately.

Challenge

Improve efficiency, particularly by reducing product returns.

Solution

GlobalBake sales history and forecasting behind time-honoured production methods.

Result

Returns below target, sales up 24% and profit margin up from 2% to over 5%.

Founded in 1942, Breadcraft now runs five plants and produces more than 150,000 units a week: contract baking, ethnic breads for retail and international franchises, and cakes and puddings for export. Diversifying added administrative load, so they needed a well-supported, integrated system. They started with GlobalBake debtors and moved on to the integrated GlobalBake financials.

Challenge

A well-supported system that improves efficiency and is flexible enough to grow with them.

Solution

GlobalBake, including integrated financials.

Result

Faster administration, strong support and a platform for growth.

Artimex bakes traditional Mexican goods 24 hours a day for the El Gallo Giro restaurant chain and is expanding into supermarkets and other retailers. They needed a clearer view of their business to prepare for that growth, especially inventory costs and the huge volume of ingredients they use each day. GlobalBake was in daily use quickly, without a dedicated IT team.

Challenge

A clearer view of key business data before expanding into new markets.

Solution

GlobalBake production modules, interfaced to the parent company's accounting.

Result

More control over ingredient costs and usage as they prepare for rapid growth.