The Bread Social
The Bread Social was created by Tom Scott, Sam Saulwick and Paul Giddings, three seasoned bakers who set up shop on an 84-acre farm in Byron Bay, New South Wales, in 2015.
Their bakery shares the farm with noted restaurant Three Blue Ducks, whose owners initially helped Tom, Sam and Paul (pictured above, from left to right) to obtain their own space. Since then, The Bread Social has grown to a four-store retail operation with further sites in Tweed Heads (also NSW) and Isle of Capri and Currumbin Waters, Queensland, as well as a thriving wholesale business.
Explaining why The Bread Social chose Cybake bakery software, Paul Giddings says: “Where it’s saved us time and money is in our office. The main function of Cybake for us is all based around our wholesale operation. So, obviously, having the front-end online ordering portal means our customers can now place their own orders – we use that quite strongly.
“Then, from there, we use it for production reporting. This tells the mixer operators how much they need to be mixing for each dough, which is then translated into each product.”
Before using Cybake to manage its business, The Bread Social used bespoke software.
Paul says: “We were fortunate enough to know a really amazing programmer and he built a bit of software for us. In the early days, we thought that our system was pretty great, and what had been developed in conjunction with us was something that could have gone to market. But overall, Cybake is a lot more advanced.”
He adds that Cybake lets his staff focus on one job at a time. “Cybake has allowed us the opportunity to centralize our office and have a more dedicated team that can solve issues on the run rather than detract from the bakery manager’s job of trying to keep production flowing and keep the jobs happening.”
Day-in, day-out
While The Bread Social team now use Cybake day-in, day-out, some took a little time getting used to it.
Paul says: “It did take a little bit of time to get them over the line. They are bakers. Not all of them are computer-savvy. The two that are computer savvy; they really liked it. It’s a busy system with a lot of functionality. They are all on board now, but a lot of people are resistant to change and so was I.
“I knew that what we had worked really well, I knew the people who were going to be using the new system, and I knew their reluctance. There was a bit of legwork in getting a couple of key figures on board before we launched it just so they could be at each side making sure it all ran smoothly.”
As well as producing hundreds of loaves a day, Paul says that The Bread Social has created more demand for fresh, artisanal products in the Byron Bay area.
He explains: “We hit the market at the right time with what we think is a really great sourdough product and croissant pastries and then we were baking and delivering seven days a week. Up until that point, in Byron, wholesale bread was being delivered three days a week out of the local area. Or six days a week, but that bread was coming out of Brisbane.
“The distributor would only get deliveries three days a week, and they had the storage facility. We were at a little moment in time where Byron turned a corner, became less seasonal, a bit more consistent throughout the year, and city-style cafés were becoming more popular and wanting to find a better product to put on their plates.”
Asked whether The Bread Social team would recommend Cybake to other bakers, Paul replies: “Yeah. And we have.”
