Welsh manufacturer Brace’s Bakery has installed Cybake software to manage business operations at its two plants in Pen-y-Fan Industrial Estate, Newport, and Croespenmaen, Caerphilly.
Brace’s Bakery is the biggest brand in Wales, known for its range of sliced bread, rolls and products such as Welsh cakes, tea cakes and crumpets. It supplies supermarkets and convenience store chains, providing some with private label items, and operates in the food service sector.
The business, which was founded in 1902 and is now run by the fourth generation of the Brace family, produces 50 million units per year. When you consider that a muti-pack of its popular Welsh cakes, for example, counts as one unit, that’s a large volume of baked goods.
Before it began its migration to cloud-based Cybake, Brace’s Bakery had been a long-time user of legacy software based on IBM midrange systems.
Leon James, financial controller of Brace’s Bakery, explains: “It was a green screen type of package, and it didn’t have any automation options or anything like that. It wasn’t user-friendly, and reporting was horrific.
“I think one of the key benefits of us moving to Cybake has been the reporting. Previously, it was difficult to get my financial information. We are also on Sage and getting access to that financial information is now so much easier.”
Brace’s Bakery’s customers now place their orders via an online portal provided by Cybake. Cybake schedules production at both of Brace’s Bakery’s sites, processes its invoices and manages the company’s purchasing, recipes, and costings. Cybake also provides the company with state-of-the-art reporting and business intelligence.
Rachel Hindle, global sales and marketing manager for Cybake says: “This was one of the larger implementations of Cybake so far in the UK. The project required the addition of new capabilities within Cybake for bakeries with multiple production sites.
“It was great to work with a team who have such a focus on automation both on the shop floor and the back office. The project was a good example of a successful digital transformation for a forward-thinking firm whose previous ERP-type system had reached the end of the line.”
Braces Bakery director Jonathan Brace says: “I contacted Cybake as I knew our existing system was at the end of its life. We had previously tried with integrators to develop our own systems, which in both cases failed miserably with a lot of expense.
“We chose Cybake as they already had a system and understanding in the baking industry. They knew what we needed to replace and how to develop it for the future. Extra work was undertaken to fit our working practices to build in greater flexibility.
“Our faith in Cybake has proven to be right and we now have a system fit for the twenty-first century at a reasonable cost.”
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