The Hummingbird Bakery opened in London in 2004. Specialising in indulgent American-style cakes and desserts, including cupcakes, brownies, cookies, pies and cheesecakes, the company’s sweet treats have been described as “iconic” and “world-renowned”, attracting a following that has allowed the business to grow steadily over the years.
The last few years have proven to be particularly fruitful, a period which has coincided with the bakery working with Polaris Elements as its POS supplier. The two businesses teamed up in 2021 on the back of an existing working relationship Hummingbird’s owners had with Polaris managing director Neil Westwater. The bakery’s owners were already familiar with Polaris software, having used it in other ventures.
The Hummingbird Bakery now has six branches across London, plus an online presence offering delivery and collection. Its latest two branches, in Victoria and Soho, opened their doors in 2022 and 2023, while the company’s flagship premises in Spitalfields also underwent an extensive refurbishment in 2023. There is also now a Hummingbird Bakery franchise in Dubai.
Challenge: POS Fit for the Future
Polaris Elements was hired with a brief to introduce a new integrated POS system that would provide a single, accessible hub for operations across the business. In particular, the bakery’s leadership wanted a solution that would improve considerably on the reporting and analytics capabilities of their previous POS, allowing them to fully leverage the value of available data.
At the same time, Hummingbird wanted an integration with specialist bakery audit stock system Cybake, plus an integration with Shopify to connect online and in-store sales.
Solution: Advanced Functionality in an Eye-Catching Package
With so many new software requirements, Polaris recommended that Hummingbird also took the opportunity to upgrade its POS terminals. This was done with one eye on the future to ensure that the POS hardware used across the business had the capacity to support ongoing growth.
Polaris demoed its own software on several hardware terminals. Hummingbird ended up choosing the AURES YUNO – partly because they liked the way it functioned, with its smooth, user-friendly touchscreen interface, but also because of the way it looks. Compact, flexible and with minimal space requirements, the YUNO series has always proven popular in hospitality settings, where desk space is often at a premium.
The bakery also liked the fact that the YUNO is available in white, and therefore matched the design of its outlets. It took one terminal in each store.
On the software side, Polaris paired its own EPOS platform with Polaris Data, a dedicated business intelligence (BI) platform that foregrounds workforce management, labour deployment and cash management. By providing complete transparency about the movement of cash across sites alongside smart, efficient rota management which includes staffing level forecasts, Polaris Data helps businesses optimise resources, reduce costs and save time.
The most challenging part of the project from Polaris’s perspective was the Cybake integration. This required the deployment of a dedicated development team who built a fully bespoke solution from the ground up – by no means an easy win, but well worth it for the added functionality it delivered to Hummingbird.
The Client’s View
“The main objective of switching over platforms was to create an integrated system so we could track sales alongside COS and labour.
“The till system has been a great improvement. The product is robust and allows the software to work optimally. We have less and less worries about support issues.
“That said, the support behind the equipment is amazing, making you feel part of a team and partnership. The people really make a difference.”
Simone Tasker, Operations Manager, Hummingbird Bakery