Bakery in Stellenbosch: Stock Take Catches R8,000 in Missing Inventory

The business

An artisan bakery with a deli counter in Stellenbosch Central, Western Cape. The bakery produces fresh bread, pastries, sandwiches, and coffee, with a focus on premium ingredients. Monthly turnover of approximately R95,000 with 5 staff.

The problem

Flour, butter, and packaging kept running out unexpectedly. The owner was reordering based on gut feel and sometimes ran out of key ingredients mid-morning, losing sales. There was no formal stock count process — just a visual check of the shelves. The owner suspected waste but had no data to confirm it.

The switch to MangoPOS

After setting up MangoPOS (R299 once-off), the owner added all 34 inventory items with measurement-based tracking — flour in kg, butter in g, packaging by unit count. Storage locations were set (Fridge, Storage, Display). The team ran their first stock take the following Monday morning using the printable count sheet feature.

The result

The auto-generated variance report revealed R8,000 in unaccounted stock across 12 items. The biggest discrepancies were in flour (23kg missing), butter (4.2kg missing), and takeaway packaging (180 units missing). Investigation traced the issue to incorrect portioning in 4 recipes — the bakers were using roughly 30% more butter per batch than the recipe called for. Recipes were standardised, portion guides printed for the kitchen, and a weekly stock take schedule was implemented. Within a month, variance dropped to under R800.

In their words