Parsons Bakery centralises payment and ordering with Square deal

South-west bakery chain Parsons Bakery has adopted Square’s point-of-sale and payment processing across its estate. The firm, which operates 48 shops across 10 counties, is using Square for Restaurants Plus to run its premises day-to-day, alongside Square Loyalty and Square Marketing to manage customer relationships, with Square Online supporting click and collect ordering at a selection of sites.

The bakery had been running separate systems for point of sale, payments, loyalty and online ordering, and wanted a single platform that could cover its operations end-to-end instead. Parsons Bakery was founded in Clevedon in north Somerset in 1926 and has been trading for a century. Originally a family-founded business, it became employee-owned in recent years, and now operates sites across Bristol, Bath, Somerset, Gloucestershire and parts of Wales.

Ben Paxton, managing director of Parsons Bakery, said: “Running almost 50 shops across the south-west and Wales, we were juggling different systems for payments, loyalty and online ordering, and none of them talked to each other. Square brought all of that onto one platform, so our team of over 400 people can spend less time managing systems and more time delivering the service our customers know us for.”

John O’Beirne, chief executive of Square International, added: “Parsons Bakery has spent a century building trust across the communities it serves. We’re bringing the back-end together under one system, giving customers a better payment and loyalty experience in every shop. The Parsons team can now focus on running the business, while we give them a seamless, intuitive and co-ordinated management system that will save them time and money.”

Square recently expanded its partnership with OpenTable to bring reservations, payments and guest data together. This came after the firm introduced the Square AI platform to help operators make data-led decisions.