Overview

Twelve years after starting out in Ocean Grove, Adelia Fine Foods & Bellarine Brownie Company has grown into a thriving regional food manufacturer with more than 20 local staff and a reputation for handcrafted quality.

Their kitchens turn out a diverse range of muesli, granola, snacks, pancake mixes, brownies and rocky road. Around 80% of this is sold wholesale to retailers like IGA, independent grocers, cafés, hamper businesses, boutique accommodation and restaurants.

Founder Amelia Trethowan, who started the business alongside her husband Adam, says her passion is “to fuel everyday adventures with wholesome and delicious foods that nourish the body and elevate the soul.”

Despite their growth, the company maintains a hands-on approach. “We have limited automation and we’re still very hands on,” Amelia said. “People are involved in every element of our product.”

Challenge

As demand rose, the team confronted the complexities of scaling handmade production while preserving quality. Amelia credits their success to an innovative mindset. “We’re always still learning and growing,” she said. “Scaling was a challenge, but we’ve been lucky because we have an innovative, process-improvement approach to business. We don’t look at things as obstacles, but as a pathway to growth.”

Their internal mantra, “Better Before Bigger,” became essential as the business expanded. It shaped decisions, reassured staff, and guided the search for systems that could support their next stage of growth.

By the time production volumes increased significantly, the team knew they had outgrown spreadsheets and manual processes. “We got to a point in the business where we needed an inventory management system,” Amelia explains. “The first system we tried caused a lot of headaches. When enough was enough, we went searching for another option and discovered Fishbowl.”

Solution

Integration with existing systems was essential, which Fishbowl could deliver. But what impressed Amelia most was the standout onboarding experience. “Fishbowl was just so wonderful with the onboarding,” she said. “Compared to the other system, it was like chalk and cheese. Fishbowl onboarding support made the decision to proceed just so easy.”

“The support you get from Fishbowl is phenomenal,” Amelia continued. “I appreciate being able to brainstorm an idea for a report and work out a way to do something similar.”

Today, Fishbowl underpins the company’s entire production workflow. “It logs everything from the moment we place an ingredient on order, to arriving on site, to going into production, to then that ingredient being used in a finished product and being dispatched to our customers,” said Amelia.

For a HACCP-certified business supplying major retailers, the ability to track and trace is non-negotiable. “If we had a recall, or if there was some faulty ingredient from a supplier, we can easily identify the products associated with that issue and notify the right customers,” she explained.

Results

Fishbowl has brought new clarity to production planning and purchasing. “It’s real data and not based on anything subjective,” said Amelia. “We can see what we’ve produced in a month, what’s being prepared, and what’s being cooked by the team.”

  • Predictive Ingredient Planning: The system helps predict ingredient needs, manage resources, and plan labor.
  • Team Independence: Staff no longer rely on one person to tell them what to make—they can discover when stock levels are low and take control of their day-to-day work.
  • Full Traceability: Complete tracking from ingredient ordering through production to customer dispatch.
  • Recall Readiness: Ability to quickly identify affected products and notify the right customers if issues arise.

“When you get to our point where we are now, we couldn’t do this without Fishbowl. I would recommend it.”

Amelia Trethowan, Founder

Looking Ahead

The business is now preparing to take the next leap, extending Fishbowl’s functionality to integrate online ordering systems. “The next project we’ll work on with Fishbowl is to cross over with the online ordering and setting that up,” Amelia said.

About Adelia Fine Foods

Based in Ocean Grove, Australia, Adelia Fine Foods & Bellarine Brownie Company is a HACCP-certified regional food manufacturer specializing in handcrafted muesli, granola, snacks, pancake mixes, brownies and rocky road. With more than 20 local staff, approximately 80% of their production is sold wholesale to retailers including IGA, independent grocers, cafés, and boutique accommodation.