Maclean’s Highland Bakery controls recipes, production and stock with Cybake ERP software
Maclean’s Highland Bakery is situated in Forres, about 25 miles northeast of Inverness along Scotland’s Moray Coast.
Now approaching its 50th anniversary, the company has developed a strong reputation, particularly for its savoury products and growing range of biscuits, which now make up over half of its business.
A wholesaler that exports around the world, it also runs three popular high street stores, a shop at its HQ, and a substantial private label operation.
Back in 2016, Maclean’s Highland Bakery was looking for a way to improve its internal processes and give its team better control of recipe costing, production planning, and stock management. It chose Cybake and has relied on the system ever since.
Lewis Maclean, Managing Director at Maclean’s Highland Bakery, explains what stood out: “What attracted us to Cybake was their forward thinking and very adaptable approach. We felt our business is quite unique in some ways, and Cybake was able to tailor a solution that fit us.”
He adds: “Since we’ve had Cybake, it has really improved our business, probably every part of the business.”
As a cloud-based system, Cybake also helped the bakery stay productive during the pandemic.
Lewis says: “Even the fact it’s now cloud-based made working from home during Covid so much easier.”
Employing over 100 staff, he explains that different teams use the system for different parts of their work: “The girls in the office use it for wholesale orders. The production guys use it for the production sheet. It’s a well-used tool in our business.”
Recipe costing
One feature that Lewis finds particularly valuable is Cybake’s recipe costing module.
“I really enjoy the recipe costing module. You can put in labour, packaging, and overheads, and then get a margin report. You can update it again and see what the latest price increases do to your margin.”
Being able to build in all costs, from ingredients to labour, and view the impact on profitability has become essential for decision-making.
With production and costing now well supported, the bakery is preparing to extend its use of Cybake.
Lewis says: “We are now looking to implement the stock module. It really ticks a lot of boxes for us.”
He is optimistic about the upcoming benefits: “It would give us much more control of our stock in the store… help us keep stock levels low, improve costings, intake of goods, purchasing and even selling.”
Lewis believes Cybake can benefit any manufacturer of baked goods, regardless of size or product range: “I would recommend it to any bakery. I feel what Cybake offers would bring value to your business.”
Catherine Thomas is the digital marketing executive at Cybake.
