Freedom Bakery
Freedom Bakery in Glasgow, Scotland, originally started as a training course for inmates at local prison, HMP Low Moss, in 2015.
It was founded by Matt Fountain, who left a job in the arts department of Glasgow University to, as he puts it, “do something useful”.
Matt says: “Originally it started as a community project. We were going to train people up, but we found we were actually making very good bread and we wanted to take that side of it much more seriously. So, in 2017, we opened the bakery in the city here and started to wholesale to restaurants, delis and independent shops.”
Before using Cybake, the bakery used Excel spreadsheets which, says Matt, led to constant errors. He describes Cybake “as a tool that helps us to organize ourselves so we that don’t make mistakes”.
Matt explains: “I’ve been with Cybake for five years now. We do use it as a CRM, to keep on top of our customer base, but we also use it for importing all our orders and to generate the reports. We are just about to start using inbound [customer online ordering] for some of our bigger customers, because that will take a lot of time off our hands for admin.”
He says that Cybake has played a crucial role in helping Freedom Bakery to grow:
“Put simply, when we came on to Cybake, we probably had about 25-30 active customers weekly. We were very small, but we were struggling with what we had already. So, it’s helped us to build that customer base and organize it. Now, we are trading with 100 businesses weekly and we have up to 180 accounts live at the moment. We wouldn’t be able to do it without it.”
Invoicing
Matt says that Cybake also cuts admin costs: “We also use the invoicing module to export those invoices to our Xero account, which is amazing. It saves so much time. I’ve only managed to get it sorted out last month or two and it’s saved us about £400 in admin each month. It’s huge.”
Asked which of his products he likes most, Matt says: “Undoubtedly, my favorite product line is our white sourdough. It’s our most profitable products makes up about 65% of our sales.”
But as a thriving community project giving opportunities to people who have been caught up in the prison system, Freedom Bakery isn’t all about the sales.
Matt says: “It wasn’t just about money. It certainly wasn’t just about bread. I do think that it’s really nice that we supply some great businesses, with even a couple of Michelin-starred restaurants on the books. And yet, you know, we’re able to work with people. I mean our prisoners have never had a job ever in their lives. For the team as a whole, I think that kind of it means a lot more. It’s not just a job.”
If you would like to find out more or see a demo of how Cybake can cut admin, improve efficiency, and improve sales in your bakery, contact us here, or use our LiveChat below.
Chris James is a communications specialist for Cybake and Cybake USA.
