Queensland Bakery Co: From COVID pivot to 250% B2B growth

The situation

Can you have your cake and eat it?

During the two years when COVID sent the world ecommerce stir-crazy, we partnered with a 100-year-old family bakery to rethink its brand, proposition and route to market – all on a limited budget.

What started as a rapid B2C pivot during the pandemic evolved into something much bigger: a new B2B growth strategy designed to help the business capitalise on the return of the out-of-home food sector and unlock new markets.

The ambition? 250% growth.

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The challenge

Our story with the bakery started in the heat of COVID, when we helped pivot Lewis & Baker into a B2C marketplace to capture changing consumer behaviour and create a new revenue stream.

As the out-of-home food sector began to recover, the opportunity shifted.

The business needed to reignite B2B growth, but its existing brand architecture, centred around the Fulfil brand, was convoluted and its product range lacked the formats increasingly demanded by the food-to-go market.

We needed to do more than refresh the brand. We needed to rethink the product proposition, market opportunity and sales journey around where future growth could come from.

The approach

Finding the growth opportunity

We started with market research to understand where the biggest opportunities lay and what the market needed from a modern bakery supplier.

A key insight was that one product format wouldn’t be enough to meet the increasingly diverse needs of the food-to-go sector.

We identified the need for a multi-format proposition spanning freshly frozen and bake-off products, helping to create five new product formats.

This wasn’t innovation for innovation’s sake. Each format was designed to increase relevance in the marketplace, open up new customer opportunities and give the sales team more reasons to start a conversation.

We also identified the frozen baked goods market as a key growth opportunity, giving the business a clear strategic direction for future product development and sales.

Creating a brand built for growth

With the growth strategy established, we turned our attention to the brand.

The Fulfil architecture was outdated and no longer reflected the ambition or heritage of the business, so we developed a new brand proposition and identity under the name Queensland Bakery.

The name itself was rooted in the family’s history, referencing the name of their very first bakery store in Southampton 100 years earlier.

Within just four months, we relaunched the brand, new website and marketing collateral, creating a more coherent and compelling proposition for the B2B market while retaining the authenticity and heritage of a family business.

Turning CRM into a growth engine

The brand relaunch was supported by a new digital and CRM strategy.

We segmented the existing customer database to understand different audiences and opportunities, then developed targeted email nurture activity to introduce the new products and proposition to existing customers over a three-month period.

This created a more relevant customer journey, moving from a broad database approach towards communications designed around customer needs, products and opportunities.

“The growth story of Queensland Bakery Co. Since The SME Partners came on board growth has been unprecedented for our business. Over 250% growth in two years in sales pipelines.”

— Brett Fowler – Commercial Director.

Giving sales the tools to sell creatively

We also rethought the sales process, creating a new onboarding journey for prospects and bringing marketing and sales activity closer together through CRM and tailored collateral.

Once a quality lead was established, prospects received a bespoke sales pack built around their specific opportunity, including product ideas, market opportunities and creative packaging mock-ups.

This helped prospects visualise what was possible, rather than simply being presented with a product catalogue.

The approach sparked more meaningful conversations with prospective customers and contributed to a marked increase in white-label business.

Building a joined-up engine for demand generation

We continued to work as an extension of the Queensland Bakery team, managing and optimising marketing activity across the customer journey.

Our outsourced marketing support spanned PPC, email, SEO, website design and UX, above-the-line activity and trade events.

Alongside this, we used a proven lead-generation methodology to identify targeted prospects in new sectors and move them through tailored nurture journeys.

The combination of PPC, outbound lead generation, CRM nurture and broader brand activity creates a 360-degree approach to turning awareness into qualified conversations and, ultimately, customers.

The impact

By combining market insight, product innovation, brand strategy and creative sales enablement, we helped transform the business from a traditional family bakery into a more agile, market-focused B2B brand.

The strategy created new product formats, opened up new market opportunities, strengthened the brand and gave the sales team a more compelling way to engage prospects.

Most importantly, it put the business on a path to 250% growth, demonstrating that a 100-year-old business can evolve quickly, creatively and commercially without losing what makes it special.

The result

250% growth ambition established through a new B2B growth strategy.
5 new product formats developed in response to market needs.
Frozen baked goods identified and targeted as a key growth market.
New Queensland Bakery brand developed and launched within four months.
New website and complete suite of sales and marketing collateral delivered alongside the relaunch.
CRM segmentation and a three-month nurture programme introduced to re-engage and convert existing customers.
New prospect onboarding journey created, connecting marketing and sales through CRM.
Bespoke sales packs introduced, using product ideation and packaging mock-ups to help prospects visualise opportunities.
Marked increase in white-label business following the new sales approach.
Ongoing integrated lead generation across PPC, outbound activity, CRM nurture, SEO, trade events and digital.

The work at a glance

B2B growth strategy developed around an ambition of 250% growth.
Market research to identify priority customer, product and market opportunities.
Frozen baked goods identified as a key strategic growth market.
Development of a multi-format proposition, including five new product formats.
Relaunch of the outdated Fulfil brand as Queensland Bakery, drawing on the family’s 100-year heritage.
New brand identity, website and complete suite of sales and marketing collateral delivered within four months.
Highly Commended B2B campaign -The Drum Awards 2022

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