How Coffi Co Uses growyze to Manage Ordering Across Six Locations, and Keep Control of Costs Amid Food & Drink Inflation

“I’ve just hit my 10-year mark as Finance Manager across the Coffi Co group and having been here for a decade, I’ve always been looking out for new software systems that not only help financially, but that can assist us in being more efficient,” explains Sophia. 

This includes meeting the business where it is today, as Sophia explains: “As a growing business, things that weren’t a priority 10 years ago suddenly are today. At one point the business opened a gin bar and this was the point where we suddenly needed an inventory management system. We had a lot of alcohol stock and realised we might be at a risk so we employed a system to help with stock control. However as time went on, we realised the system had limitations that were stopping us from progressing. It didn’t fit with the way we measure stock or do the stocktake and so it didn’t work out with us.

We’d previously tried a second system but it had the same issue. Neither system did everything we wanted or there were niggly things that they were slow to fix or implement,” says Sophia. 

It was at this point that she came across growyze. As a fairly new solution on the market, Sophia believed it might be more flexible to the needs of a growing business, and able to adapt more closely to what Coffi Co required. 

“From the first meeting we had with Kati (growyze’s Founder) the level of interaction was so good we were just like right, okay, let’s go for it,” says Sophia.

At this stage Coffi Co needed a solution that would work across all sites rather than just one and a system that could handle alcohol stock management. However once they started using growyze, Sophia realised that there was far more potential than just stock control alone.

“When we met Kati and she explained about growyze’s features for logging wastage and ordering products we were even more intrigued. Now we use it for 100% of our orders and almost every single supplier goes through growyze.

It’s great that stock management is included and it syncs with Square POS, so that’s amazing, but the level of detail on the actual ordering is so good that it allows us to do everything in one place. For example if we need to put a stop on all of our alcohol orders from one supplier we can turn on order approvals to allow each order to go through to a Senior Manager which helps to better control the ordering. It’s a small thing but once it’s in practice it’s so helpful. I would also say the time saving and the ease of the system is great. It’s not just that it’s quicker to use but it’s also easier to use.” 

Before growyze the ordering system was fragmented, time-consuming and difficult to keep control of, as Sophia shares; “We did email orders, phone orders or used an online portal for some suppliers. If one person needed to place six orders from six different suppliers they would either have to log in to six different things, or send multiple emails or place six different phone calls. Now they do it all in one place, and they can do it from their phone.” 

growyze’s ability to set custom permissions per user also means that Sophia can ensure each staff member only has access to the parts they need.

“We use growyze across six sites as well as a bakery and our production kitchen. The Store Managers can use it to place the orders. The Head Chef then has access to add and remove products as we change the ordering of items quite often depending on the menus. Then myself and a colleague who deals with the operational side both have full access to edit things, check stocktakes and so on.”

While Sophia mentions the time savings of everything being in one place as a key benefit, the granular control over each order is what makes the biggest difference to the group’s profitability, particularly in the difficult climate of food and drink inflation. 

“Over the past six months one of our main focuses has been cost control. With the cost of everything increasing exponentially we really have to seek out the best price from suppliers. growyze’s price change reports really help in this area as they alert us to when we’re being overcharged.

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We can also determine where store managers can order products from. One example is where the prices on milk can be all over the place. So on growyze instead of managers being able to order from all different sites we can remove all of the items and just have the one specific supplier we want everyone to order from. That’s really helpful because it means we know we're getting the best price because we're limiting where the team can order from, whereas when they were ordering through the online portals or over the phone that isn’t possible.”

When asked if Sophia would recommend growyze to similar hospitality businesses, here’s what she said:

“100% I would recommend growyze. The level of interaction that you get with the team and the level of support is second to none. It’s one of the best companies for communication that I’ve ever worked with and I’ve been through a lot of systems in the years since I’ve been here. We had a lot of questions when we were setting up and our emails, and even Whatsapps, were responded to instantly. If someone was looking to take it on, not only is there a great ordering system and a great stock management system but that level of support is also so important.”

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Give growyze a try for yourself today by booking a demo with the team.