Baker's Delight Case Study: A National Icon Kneaded Chemical-Free Cleaning
Most businesses don't think too hard about who cleans the office. Baker's Delight isn't most businesses. The Australian bakery icon holds the companies it works with to the same standard it sets for itself, right down to the people cleaning its test bakery after hours.
Here's how EarthWize earned that trust, told by three of the people closest to it.
Sustainability that you can actually measure
For Andrew, Baker’s Delight’s Head of Store Solutions and Sustainability, the fit ran deeper than a tidy office. The company had stood up a dedicated sustainability function to do more with less and get ahead of the reporting that’s coming for businesses like theirs. It all traces back to the same value that runs through everything they do: do what’s right. The ethical way EarthWize employs its people, alongside chemical-free cleaning, fit that value neatly.
EarthWize cleans both sites with Tersano, a water-based system that turns ordinary tap water into a sanitiser and cleaner, then settles back to water. There are no packaged chemicals shipped in, far less plastic, and none of the harsh residues that come with traditional products. It’s well-proven technology, trusted for years in settings like hospitals and dental surgeries.
There’s a health angle that matters in a bakery business. Staff would occasionally develop dermatitis, and the first thing a doctor would ask for was the safety data sheets for the cleaning chemicals on site. Chemical-free cleaning takes that risk off the table at the source, rather than managing it after the fact.
It also gives Baker’s Delight something concrete to report. A chemical-free system across its sites sits alongside the other measurable commitments it tracks, like food waste prevention through Too Good To Go, as part of the impact story it shares with customers.
Cleaning you can count on
Angela has been Baker’s Delight’s executive assistant and office manager for 24 years. Her brief is easy to say and hard to deliver: make sure everyone who walks into the Melbourne office finds a space that’s clean, safe and good to be in.
The cleaning company before EarthWize made that harder than it should have been. They ran contractors who were barely on site, nowhere near the hours the program had promised. They were also fielding complaints about things that hadn’t been touched in days. The work just wasn’t matching what had been sold.
Cost mattered, as it always does. But what Angela really wanted was a cleaner she didn’t have to chase, from a company whose values matched Baker’s Delight’s own. When EarthWize proposed chemical-free cleaning, she was politely sceptical, the way plenty of people are, until she saw it work.
She’s happy to report that the program is actually being followed, the complaints have quietened down, and the most obvious change is what’s missing: the harsh chemical smell that used to hang around the office and kitchen is gone.
The cleaner who became part of the team
Plenty of cleaning contracts send a rotating cast of strangers through your building. Baker’s Delight gets the opposite. The same crew cleans both sites, and our cleaner, Ben, looks after the head office and the test bakery.
That continuity does real work. Ben knows both spaces and has built a relationship with the Baker’s Delight team, so small issues get spotted and sorted early instead of getting lost between different people. Each week he also brings feedback on how to make the partnership run better.
We also clean beyond the business of bread!
Would chemical-free cleaning fit your business as well as it fits Baker's Delight? We’re here to discuss your cleaning needs in more detail. You can book a walkthrough with us or get in touch for a free quote.