SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS
Unleashed a game changer for award-winning bakery Drowning in paperwork, Pinjarra Bakery general manager, Daniel Pantaleo, needed a one-stop-shop solution to make running his business easier. He found one. Mike Wheeler explains how.
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ocated an hour’s drive south of Perth, Pinjarra is a little town with a huge drawcard – its renowned bakery run by the Pantaleo family. Founded just over 22 years ago by patriarch and former panel beater Larry, the bakery has not only put the town on the map, but has won a
bookshelf-full of national awards for its pies. Its award-winning ways were capped off this year by taking out the Best Meat Pie award in the Great Aussie Meat Pie Competition at the Fine Food Australia Exhibition held in Sydney. Like any company, growth is key, and since starting the business
Pinjarra Bakery’s award-winning pies, along with Unleashed’s inventory software, are what makes it such a successful business.
44 Food&Beverage Industry News | October 2019 | www.foodmag.com.au
in 1997, Larry and the rest of his family, has grown the business to include stores in Maddington and Waroona, also in Western Australia. However, while expansion is exciting, it does come with a set of challenges, one being more paperwork. When in its infancy, dealing with spreadsheets wasn’t
a problem for the Pantaleo family. However, as the business expanded, so did the bureaucracy of keeping it running. The bakery’s general manager, Larry’s son Daniel, knew something had to be done to streamline processes with paperwork. Enter Unleashed Software’s solution. “The old system that we had of dealing with the paperwork and spreadsheets was no longer going to work,” said Daniel Pantaleo. “It was very inefficient and time-consuming for us. It all came to a head when we opened our Maddington store.” Unleashed’s inventory management software was a perfect solution for the family, and Pantaleo noticed the impact straight away. “What we like about Unleashed is that it is a hosted solution, which means I can jump on it from anywhere in the world and I can check what is going on,” he said. “I can update my prices. I can contact my customers through the CRM. So it allows me – as someone who is here, there and everywhere at any given time of the day – to jump on any time anywhere and see what is going on. This is very important for me, because the last thing I want was a dedicated software solution on one computer at one location. A key to me was having that flexibility.” According to Pantaleo, the system also streamlined a lot of processes that the bakery had, which were old and clunky. Many mistakes were getting made and Unleashed allowed Pantaleo to enter all the parameters he needed to cover in one place. From there, he could control the ordering of stock, see what stock he had, as well as the taking feedback from the other two stores. “Everything became a lot clearer as to how we were operating that business,” said Pantaleo. “You need to keep control of your numbers otherwise it is pretty daunting feeling
