Lick Ice Cream is a premium ice cream producer supplying customers nationally across Australia, with plans to expand into international markets. Owned by Simon West and his wife for the past two and a half years, the company operates a diverse distribution network that includes three retail stores in Brisbane, supermarket chains, independent grocers, fruit and vegetable retailers, restaurants, hotels, and convention centers.
With such a varied sales channel mix and a complex operation combining manufacturing and distribution, Lick Ice Cream needed robust inventory management to maintain control across every stage of production and fulfillment.
Challenge
Managing a premium food production business with diverse sales channels presented several operational complexities. With manufacturing, raw material receiving, and distribution all happening simultaneously, Lick Ice Cream needed a system that could track inventory from ingredient receipt through production to final delivery across multiple channels.
“We have three retail stores here in Brisbane through to supermarket chains, independent supermarkets, fruit and veg retailers, restaurants, hotels, convention centres, so a very diverse spread. So what we’re trying to do there is to make sure that we have full control of our inventory system,” explains Simon West, CEO & Owner.
As a food manufacturer, Lick Ice Cream must comply with strict HACCP requirements, including the ability to conduct mock recalls and trace any batch of product back to its original ingredients quickly and accurately. Precise tracking of weights, measures, and ingredients was essential to maintain product quality, reduce waste, and ensure consistent results across hundreds of different flavors.
The team also needed a system that would improve picking and manufacturing accuracy while being intuitive enough for staff to trust and adopt quickly. With hundreds of flavors, each with different cost structures, Simon needed clear visibility into margins by SKU to identify which products were performing well and which needed adjustment.
Solution
Lick Ice Cream implemented Fishbowl to create an integrated system that connects every stage of their operation—from raw material receiving through manufacturing to picking, packing, and dispatch. The system provides complete inventory visibility and control across their complex workflow.
Fishbowl enabled the team to streamline their manufacturing orders, track batch numbers for full traceability, and generate accurate picking lists that staff could trust. By ensuring quality data input from the start, particularly around ingredient receiving and batch tracking, Lick Ice Cream built a robust foundation for food safety compliance and operational efficiency.
“What Fishbowl does is it makes it easy for our staff, particularly with manufacturing orders, through to picking. It means that they are picking accurately and we are keeping, once again, full control of our inventory right the way through the process,” says Simon West.
The system’s reporting capabilities also gave Simon the ability to analyze margins across their extensive product range, helping identify opportunities to optimize profitability.
Results
Lick Ice Cream can now complete a mock recall in approximately 15 minutes, identifying exactly where every batch went and contacting all affected customers within an hour—critical for meeting HACCP requirements.
The picking process became faster, easier to read, and more accurate, helping the team fulfill orders more efficiently across all sales channels. Henry, Head Chef & Production Manager notes: “So now that we use Fishbowl, finding picking and packing the orders is a lot easier. Work’s more efficient, it’s a lot faster, it’s easier to read, and it improves accuracy.”
Accurate tracking of weights, measures, and ingredients reduced wastage at both the manufacturing and finished goods stages, while making the production process easier for staff. With hundreds of flavors to manage, Simon can now quickly analyze margins by SKU, identifying which products deliver strong returns and which may need pricing or cost adjustments.
While staff were initially hesitant to change systems, once they began following Fishbowl’s processes, the benefits were immediate—efficiency improvements happened “overnight.”
“Fishbowl has definitely saved us time. It’s made us confident with our numbers. So we’re confident with our inventory control. It’s made us confident with traceability. It’s made us confident with our margins as well.”
— Simon West, CEO & Owner
