Grounded Pleasures has spent over 20 years perfecting premium drinking chocolate with a simple philosophy: use the finest ingredients, and nothing else. No additives, no fillers, no preservatives – just the best quality cocoa and ingredients sourced from the world's best growers.
This philosophy has created something truly special. From their base in Ballarat, Victoria the business now supplies over a thousand wholesale customers across cafes, coffee roasters, distributors, providores, and greengrocers – across every state in Australia.
But behind the scenes, the way they were managing wholesale orders had been anything but premium.
When Yasmyn Robinson joined as Operations Manager, the scale of the problem hit her immediately.
“The amount of phone calls Michelle received just to place an order – I was amazed she wasn't pulling her hair out. Even though she's supposed to work four days a week, the phone didn't stop on her days off either.”
Before Upstock, orders came by phone or email to one person: Michelle. Every phone call and email required time following up with customers to verify details, what was in stock, confirming prices, and so on. Each order turned into a confusing tangle of messages.
Orders were prone to mistakes. For example, customers regularly confused boxes with cartons over the phone, and without a paper trail, there was no way to know where it went wrong.
It wasn't just slow and painful for Michelle, customers weren't loving it either.
Now multiply that by every day of the week, across hundreds of customers – all of them on separate price lists.
In their search for a solution, one ordering platform they considered involved pushy sales people who wanted to control how they operate – not the right fit for a business built on trust and customer service.
In an industry where trade relationships run deep, it was one of their own customers, Karon Farm Coffee, who recommended Craig get onto Upstock.
“We did our homework. The Upstock team come from a good place, with good credentials, and we get to stay in control of our own payments and customer relationships.”
Upstock easily fit around their existing systems – plugging into Xero rather than replacing it. There was no pressure, no rush. And when they were ready, the transition was seamless.
“It's the easiest system I've ever worked with. And I've been in retail and wholesale for 30 years.”
Now their customers have 24/7 access to their up-to-date catalogue and order directly through the app – all day, every day – they don't need to order through Michelle anymore. All the pricing that used to live in Michelle's head is now in Upstock, so customers always see their negotiated pricing, along with what's in stock.
The team at Grounded Pleasures can view and process all the incoming orders, instantly and easily – without having to hassle Michelle.
“We just had our best month ever – there's no way that would have happened with our old system. Let alone be able to keep up with all the orders now.”
Ironically, with all the order admin now handled by the app, Michelle spends more time talking with customers – but instead of talking about the hassles of order admin, the conversations are all about growing the relationship.
“Michelle’s got a lot of time now to focus on communicating with our large distributors and large customers. Which is extremely important. You can't get rid of that face-to-face or phone-to-phone contact.”
And the results speak for themselves. Just five months after getting on Upstock, Grounded Pleasures had their biggest month in the company's 21-year history.
Asked what would happen if they weren't using Upstock, the answer was immediate.
“Without Upstock, the business couldn't keep up with the orders, or spend quality time with our customers and team.”
With the admin taken care of, they have more capacity to expand the product range. They've been adding a vegan range, a raspberry drinking chocolate with real freeze-dried raspberries, matcha, and a sticky chai.
Grounded Pleasures has been able to expand confidently, knowing Upstock can easily handle their growing range and the increasing customer demand.
More from our chat with Grounded Pleasures
What makes Grounded Pleasures different?
Craig's family ran a cafe in Camberwell back in the early 90s, so he's got deep roots in coffee. He trained baristas, ran master classes – he even wrote a book on making the best espresso.
Craig noticed cafes had amazing coffee but nothing comparable for drinking chocolate, so he went looking for the best cocoa he could find and started Grounded Pleasures about 20 years ago.
He's our flavour alchemist. Our Sicilian orange oil comes from Sicily. We've got single-origin chocolates from Peru and Colombia, cinnamon from Sri Lanka.
It's all natural – no shortcuts. And we produce through a local disability employment social enterprise, which we've been partnered with for over ten years now.
What are you most proud of?
There is not one day where there isn't something that changes, evolves, grows, or challenges us. Between the three of us, we work through it, we get it done, and we stand by the product, the business, and our customers. We're a small company but we're really dynamic. The music's always on in the background. We enjoy what we do.
With that kind of passion for customer relationships, how did you find bringing customers onto a digital platform?
Most of our customers have come on board really easily and the feedback's been great. They can see the full catalogue, their pricing, and place orders whenever it suits them. For us, it hasn't taken anything away from the relationship. If anything, it's given us more time to actually have those conversations – instead of spending every call just taking an order. And if it doesn't work for a customer, that's fine – they can still email or call. We're not going to force anyone and Upstock doesn’t make us.
How have you found working with the Upstock team along the way?
You’ve got probably the best support team I've worked with. If we ask a question, somebody gets back to us within ten minutes. They don't make us feel like idiots – it's just, "Not a problem, that's what we're here for."
Has Upstock changed anything beyond ordering?
It's made us re-evaluate our processes entirely. We're now digitising our credit application form because Upstock highlighted where things could be smoother. It's raised some really positive process changes across the whole business.
Order wholesale from Grounded Pleasures today
