Cathy Palmer started How Now Dairy from the seat of her van. She’s shaken up the industry, building Australia’s first certified cow-and-calf dairy – where calves stay with their mums and kindness drives every decision.
“We sell a premium product. We have to be the best. That means service, simplicity, and showing up with kindness – every single time.”
Cathy originally managed orders with spreadsheets, scraps of paper, phone calls and text messages. But she knew it was holding her back from growth.
She spent a year using a wholesale ordering system that promised to deliver big efficiency gains to run her operation. What she found was the opposite.
“I hated it from the get-go. It was clunky as hell. It created more admin, not less. Invoices wouldn’t match with Xero. It didn’t work on my phone. After a year I went back to spreadsheets. It was just too painful.”
But then everything changed when she discovered Upstock.
“I needed something that could do my orders, invoices, and deliveries without babysitting it.
Upstock nailed it.
It's seamless and gives me everything I need. I run everything from my phone. Upstock is the only way I can do that.”
Fresh milk deliveries require a tightly managed team of drivers. To keep track of her drivers, Cathy was using specialised routing software, but found she didn’t need it after getting on Upstock.
“Upstock gives me visibility of where all my drivers are. I can see what my drivers are delivering in real time. That’s gold.”
Now her drivers confirm their deliveries by taking photos at drop-off – she loves that the app prompts them at every step.
“When my drivers make a delivery, they just press ‘Delivered’ and take a photo. That one feature alone changed everything.”
Instead of chasing customers and getting panic orders after the cut-off time, Cathy now uses standing orders to automate her sales.
“My customers love standing orders. It means they never miss a delivery again.
And they can’t miss the cut-off – the app automatically reminds them before the deadline.”
Getting her buyers placing their orders in the app was remarkably quick and easy.
“I just stopped taking text orders. I sent everyone a QR code and said, ‘This is how we’re doing it now.’ 80% of them switched straight away. I’d say 98% of customers are now on the app. They love it.”
The previous system Cathy used made managing customer relationships harder, not easier – adding friction instead of removing it. Today, she’s got more customers than ever and manages them all directly through Upstock, with stronger relationships and far less effort.
“I’ve got more customers than ever. Upstock makes it so easy to manage relationships, and I do it so much better.
Some of these customers I’ve had for years. I still want it to feel personal – and Upstock lets me manage them properly.”
From running her business out of a van to expanding across Melbourne’s top grocers and cafes, Cathy’s business is powered by kindness, simplicity and remarkable efficiency.
“I live on my phone. I supply dozens of cafes, dozens of small retailers, IGA’s, some of the largest organic stores – all from my phone. And I have big ambitions. I keep it lean and grow it smart.
Without Upstock, I’d be drowning in admin.”
Order wholesale from How Now Dairy
