With eight Isuzu trucks in the fleet and plans for four more, Routley's Bakery has big plans for its product range and customer service offerings in 2023
With 75 years of baking under its belt Routley’s Bakery has well and truly proven it has what it takes to make it in a tough industry.
The Geelong-based family business was started back in 1947 by the Routley family, and nowadays a third generation is keeping the dream alive as the business continues to grow and evolve.
Operations manager Sam Routley’s grandparents started the business. They had five children, and they all joined the business – as did some of their children, of which Sam is one.
“Now the next generation have done their apprenticeships and are working at Routley’s Bakery, four generations deep in baking for the family name.”
Now, with a focus on pies, breads and cakes the bakery has 10 flagship stores Victoria-wide, as well as a long list of customers including cafés, restaurants, school canteens, and tuck-shops at sporting facilities and football clubs across the region.
With such a time-sensitive product, Sam says Routley’s Bakery requires complete reliability from its transport fleet.
“We’re very service orientated. Customers will put in their order six days a week and we’re super reliant on our fleet to get the product to our customers every day, without fail,” he says.
For Routley’s Bakery their choice of vehicle is Isuzu with the great service they receive at Geelong Isuzu keeping the fleet operational and always on the road.
“Our latest truck is a long wheel base FRD 110-260 Auto fitted with a Thermo King fridge body and a rear tail lift. We’ve had it seven months now and it’s exactly what we needed,” Sam says.
The FRD 110-260 has a GVM of 11,000 kg and GCM of 16,000 – 20,000 and with a 10-pallet capacity build out the back, there’s not only plenty payload, but acres of space to build genuine efficiencies into their daily delivery routing.
The fleet has been built up slowly over time in-line with the bakery’s expansion increase, with the relationship between the Routleys and Isuzu Trucks stretching back to the 90s.
“Our Isuzu fleet is on the road early six days a week,” Sam says. “But the trucks do have a day off on Sunday.”
With an eight-truck fleet on the road already, Sam has plans to expand within the next 12 months due to continued growth.
In a marriage of convenience of sorts, the Geelong Isuzu dealership and servicing arm happens to be located directly opposite the bakery itself, a level of accessibility that works to keep the fleet on the road.
“Our fleet travels the Geelong and Surf Coast region, and the FRD 110-260 travels to Melbourne delivering a massive amount of food and produce, which is then divided into the fleet of Isuzu N-Series trucks that service the Western suburbs of Melbourne,” Sam mentioned.
“We also have a truck that drives to the Eastern suburbs of Melbourne, which then delivers to another distributor there.
“The whole fleet covers a combined 1,200 – 2,000 kilometres every day.”
Sam says the business schedules its routine servicing with Geelong Isuzu and they always bring the trucks back that afternoon.
“Without the trucks on the road, products get left in the factory. That’s why we continue to buy Isuzu because they don’t let us down and we don’t have downtime waiting on repairs or servicing.”
With fleet expansions in the works and more demand than ever for their award-winning bakery range, it will be exciting to see what happens next for Routley’s Bakery.
“We know we’re sticking with Isuzu Trucks because they’ve got the right formula for their business…a balance between their outstanding product and fantastic customer service and truck servicing.”