Fika Swedish Kitchen

Highlights — TLDR

1. Swedish Culinary Tradition in Australia: Fika Swedish Kitchen, founded by three Swedish entrepreneurs, brings traditional Swedish food culture to Australia, with a focus on meatballs, pastries, and coffee.

2. Rapid Expansion and Growth: Starting from a small setup on Manly Beach, Sydney, Fika rapidly expanded to multiple locations, including Bondi Beach and Perth, offering a unique dining experience.

3. Delivery Integration with Deliverect: Fika integrated their delivery services with Deliverect, streamlining operations and simplifying the process through their POS system, Square.

4. Efficient Online Order Management: Deliverect's platform enabled Fika to efficiently manage online orders across different delivery platforms, enhancing their service efficiency.

5. Scalability and Ease of Expansion: With Deliverect's easy-to-use and intuitive system, Fika Swedish Kitchen found it effortless to expand their delivery services to multiple locations.

Fika Swedish Kitchen: bringing Scandinavia down-under!

Originally from Sweden, Linda, Sophie, and Diana all came backpacking to Australia, not knowing each other, and quickly started missing home. While hanging out, they realized that Sweden has such a strong food culture: Easter, crayfish party, or even Midsummer; most Swedish traditions are rooted in food. That's how Fika Swedish Kitchen was born!

"That didn't really hit home until we were all here outside of Sweden. So we wanted to bring this cultural experience along with the food traditions here for all the locals to enjoy!" explains Linda Stanes.

Eight years ago, the first Fika Swedish Kitchen opened its door on the Manly Beach in Sydney to offer Swedish meatballs, pastries, and coffee and quickly turned into a 20 people restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and all the above. This fast growth led to a second location in 2019 on Bondi Beach, Sydney's other popular beach! The vibrant atmosphere doesn't just speak to the Swedes but to the local communities or Europeans missing home and can now also be found in Perth, on the West coast, so that everybody can enjoy a bit of Scandinavia down-under.

"It's really exciting, and we definitely want to grow the business and open more cafés. We're looking forward to a bright future."

The delivery challenge can be confusing

After going back and forth between different delivery platforms, Linda and her business partners debated whether or not to focus on delivery. But setting up a delivery operation can quickly become a complex operation. "I was picturing the little bit of space there with all the different operators, screens, printers, and bags, and I thought it would be a nightmare. When the staff is busy, they don't have time to run around and check things," says Linda. Fika Swedish Kitchen started expanding its delivery service due to the increasing demand for coffee and breakfast during the lockdown. And that's when they discovered Deliverect in Square, their point of sale system. "We saw this new feature of management orders where we could streamline all our online orders, and we thought "that's what we need" straight away. And the full integration with Square has been smooth," explains Linda.

Working with Deliverect has simplified Fika's operation and made life easier for the staff. Now they can be online and showcase all of their delicious food, and online sales are picking up: customers love it.

"We wouldn't be on these delivery services unless it was for Deliverect. That's it."

All in one screen

Deliverect centralizes all of Fika Swedish Kitchen's online orders in Square, the point-of-sale they have been using and trusting, and allows them to have all they need in one single screen. "It takes out the hassle of having several apps or platforms screens and printers, just saving space and time. The efficiency of it: that you just go to the one page for everything." 

Deliverect also simplifies the daily operation by how effortless it is. "It is intuitive. You don't have to spend a lot of time teaching the basic functions to the staff; you literally click and snooze and turn an item off. So it's very easy to understand and operate and user-friendly." continues Linda. Simplifying the management of their online orders allowed Fika Swedish Kitchen to save space, save valuable time, and streamline the process.

Easy to expand

Staff doesn't have to worry about which channel orders are coming from: they get the ticket, prepare the food, put it in the bag, and out the door! Because Deliverect connects all the different delivery platforms to the point-of-sale, not only does it simplify the whole online orders operation, but it also makes it easy to add another available delivery platform. "The fact that we can partner with all these companies, with zero hassle, is a game-changer," adds Linda.

Fika Swedish Kitchen's daily operations became smoother. And with 3 locations, Linda noticed how simple it was to expand Deliverect to another site. "Being able to add it to our second shop within a week and have it all set up is fantastic. It's effortless to duplicate and put it anywhere, in any shop. If I had ten, I wouldn't hesitate to put it in all ten because it's such a smooth, easy system." continues Linda. They can now manage all the menus of their different locations from one single overview.

"Coming on board with Deliverect is a game-changer for our business. I've been very passionate about it, and I think everybody that has a small business, especially if they have more than one, need to work with Deliverect because this is fantastic!"

Fika Swedish Kitchen is all equipped to grow and share Scandinavian delicacies with more of Australia. Not having to worry about online orders anymore allows them to connect with customers and do what they do best: bring a bit of warmth to their customers.