Kaffeeklatsch Seattle grows wholesale pretzel business with Cybake
Kaffeeklatsch Seattle is a German-style retail and wholesale bakery in the northern district of Washington state’s Emerald city. It was established in 2011 as a coffee shop that made and sold pastries.
After a few years, the bakery began developing a wholesale program around its popular signature pretzels. This side of the business grew rapidly, and it increased its production to match.
It currently supplies around 30 gastro pups, breweries and restaurants in and around the city as well as between 20 and 30 further customers via a distributor. Kaffeeklatsch Seattle also sells its products at three major farmers markets and at local events.
Justus Jessen, partner and wholesale manager (pictured above with his mom Annette Heide-Jessen, also a partner in the business), explains that rapid expansion was not without its problems.
He says: “We began to struggle with daily recipe changes for our wholesale partners and farmers markets; each day had vastly different batch sizes, and we began making mistakes handwriting invoices. That was when we implemented Cybake – it has been an incredible change for us in terms of efficiency.”
Kaffeeklatsch Seattle adopted Cybake in 2021 and uses the ERP-type software to take its online orders, manage its recipes and generate its invoices.
Orders
Justus says: “The wholesale ordering platform specifically keeps our orders neat. Before, our orders involved a daily call list, orders coming in via text message, email, WhatsApp, or just in-person visits by our shop. This was extremely unsustainable, and a lot of errors were made.
“People missed their orders, we made mistakes on our recipes, and there were just a lot of inconsistencies. The recipes tool automates our daily production numbers, and turns an hour-long process into a quick, 20 second report print off.”
The business uses Cybake’s weekly ordering overview to gauge production averages and also takes advantage of Cybake’s integration with QuickBooks accounting software.
Justus explains: “QuickBooks integration allows for easy online payments for some of our customers, and the invoicing system that Cybake provides keeps me from writing all our invoices via an Excel system I developed.
“The invoicing and QuickBooks integration also helps our AR representatives manage payments and keep our customers on track. We lost thousands of dollars to non-payment or lost invoices in our early years, simply because we did not have adequate systems for tracking invoices and payments.”
Would Kaffeeklatsch Seattle recommend Cybake to other commercial bakeries?
“One hundred percent, yes,” Justus replies. “It has streamlined our operation, and we would not be at the point we are at without this tool. It has made continued growth possible.”
Photos by Rob Winkle
Want to find out more about how Cybake can streamline your operations and grow your business? Talk to one of our specialists today.
Seamus Quinn is the head of communications for Cybake, Cybake USA and Cybake Australia.
