Tom Edwards and his wife Betty Milner founded Iris the Bakery with a simple vision: make bread with integrity for their local community.
“We buy from great local producers, turn it into great food for our community, and employ a team from all walks of life – that’s what I love about Iris.”
Using heritage wheat from regenerative farms, they built a bakery loved by their local Melbourne community, while supplying top cafes and restaurants including Sun Hands, Cam’s Kiosk, Florian and Juniper.
As wholesale demand was rising, running the business on spreadsheets and emails was making it hard to grow, as operations manager Emilia explained.
“We’d totally outgrown spreadsheets. Managing spreadsheets and emails coming in from every direction was causing mayhem.”
Iris needed a system they could trust to handle their large daily order volumes. They trialled a well known wholesale ordering platform, but the bugs and clunky experience pushed them away.
“We actually joined Upstock at the 11th hour after signing up with another platform. We did a trial run and it all went wrong – really scary. We just couldn’t trust or rely on that system. That’s when we made the switch to Upstock.”
After hearing great things about Upstock from their peers at Austro Bakery and How Now Dairy they made the switch.
“Going live on Upstock only took an hour. It was very smooth, fast, and easy. Upstock gave us time, answered our questions, and made sure it worked for our bakery.”
The difference was immediate. Orders, invoices, and payments started flowing seamlessly – managed entirely by Emilia.
“Without Upstock, we couldn't have taken on more wholesale customers. It's been essential for us to grow to the next stage."
Keeping up with increasing daily orders has never been easier. Standing orders keep sales on autopilot, cut-off times are enforced automatically, and credit card payments have boosted their cashflow – eliminating the chaos, risks, and waste caused by spreadsheets and emails.
“We have high standards. Now we can scale while maintaining our standards of great bread and great service.
Thanks to Upstock, our customer relationships have never been better. Better comms and it’s so reliable – it works better for everyone.”
Upstock has become essential for Iris to grow while staying lean. Tom explained they’re now planning further expansion of their wholesale operations.
“Upstock was the step we needed to grow. Without it, we couldn’t have taken on more wholesale.
Emilia can easily handle the orders so I can focus on being in the kitchen, working on new things, trying to make the best bread every day.”
Order wholesale from Iris the Bakery
