Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses

Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses is one of the longest standing and well-renowned producers of hand baked goods in Australia. Based in Melbourne, the family-owned business has a rich history of providing customers with sweets and savouries since the 1800s. The company faced a number of workforce challenges before engaging Tanda such as, difficulty navigating excessive amounts of administration and overspending on overtime due to scheduling inefficiencies. Ferguson Plarre wasn’t reaching its potential and action had to be taken to overcome these challenges. Chris Tankard, Culture & Human Resources Manager at Ferguson Plarre set out to find a solution – and since finding Tanda, has seen great success in improving day to day operations and employee satisfaction. Following their implementation of Tanda, Ferguson Plarre has adopted a highly optimised scheduling process, allowing them to accommodate for the constantly shifting demand for their products, significantly reducing the time spent maintaining staff rosters, absences and staffing costs.

Chris set out to find a user-friendly system that would be eagerly adopted by his team, a solution that would allow his front line staff to start thinking like business owners. This is why finding a great system functions more like a partnership than a service – especially when it comes to managing areas of the business as important as your employees – is crucial.

Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses are committed to delivering freshly baked goods to its stores. With a staff of more than 150 employees, their goal is to provide the best quality products, while catering for constant shifts in their day to day sales. As such, they require a staff management system that can optimise their schedule according to demand data.

Previous systems used at Ferguson Plarre failed to achieve the results they needed to achieve their business mission. Their previous scheduling software was a platform that employees throughout the company avoided. Staff were reluctant to use it due to issues with reliability. Meanwhile, the managerial team found a great deal of effort was required to make basic adjustments to staff schedules, pay rates and documents. Not having access to the tools they needed led to higher staffing costs, frustrated staff, and the inability to dedicate time and energy to areas of the business that add value. As a result, the company was left with significant sunk costs in a system that didn’t give them outcomes and satisfaction in return.