Page 24 - Food&Drink Business Magazine June 2019

BAKERY & DESSERTS
When tech puts the cherry on top
Discovering one tech solution for three problems was serendipitous for one iconic ice cream company.
IN 1966, the most exotic ice cream in Australia was neapolitan. For the founder of Serendipity Ice Cream Alix Mandelson, who was allergic to chocolate, it would not do.
So she set about creating her own. In her kitchen, Mandelson experimented with real cream, eggs and other fresh ingredients to develop flavours like maple walnut, cherry garden and vanilla bean. She ended up a long way from the lurid colours of that original neapolitan.
Today her daughter, Sarah, is CEO and the range includes gourmet ice creams, sorbets, desserts, soft serve and toppings. It is sold all over Australia in cafés, restaurants and retailers.
Sarah Mandelson explains the company was struggling with its growth. “Invoicing became a significant issue. Plus, our inventory is quite complex due to the sheer number of recipes and
formulations,” Mandelson told Food & Drink Business.
“All of our systems were separate, including our finances, CRM and inventory. We have more SKUs than most businesses, and our previous inventory management was inadequate and holding us back,” Mandelson adds.
The company looked to technology for a solution and
Inventory management has improved significantly. “With so many SKUs and complexity in our inventory due to our many recipes and formulations, we knew we had to invest in a system that was able to manage this effectively.
“We can see inventory from right across the business as
“ Invoicing became a significant issue.
Our inventory is quite complex due to the sheer number of recipes and formulation.”
discovered a single platform could address the three areas they wanted to improve. Mobility, inventory management and automation were Serendipity's core concerns and the JCurve Cloud ERP stepped up.
Since implementing the cloud ERP solution, Serendipity has seen a 2.5 percent increase in gross profit.
One system gives managers a live view of sales performance, customer activity and more, at any time, from wherever they are. Real-time dashboards and KPI meters keep everyone informed and up-to-date, providing the true mobility the company needed.
well as the costs of our products, whether that’s variable cost or average cost,” Mandelson says.
“Putting in place strategic automation has saved us considerable time and expense. We’ve automated a number of manual processes such as placing orders. We’ve also been able to cut down on the paper trail when ordering with suppliers.
“The next technology area we are looking is better using our CRM and implementing more effective email marketing techniques in order to improve our customer experience,” she says. ✷
24 | Food&Drink business | June 2019 | www.foodanddrinkbusiness.com.au
ABOVE: Sarah is clearly her mother’s daughter, having eaten a 500 gram tub of the first test batch of their Peanut Butter Disaster flavour.