How Stoddart Transformed Operations on StoreConnect and Salesforce

Founded in 1959 by two brothers in Newcastle, England, Stoddart began life as a humble metal fabricator. Seven decades later — now led by the third generation — it’s one of Australia’s most respected family-owned manufacturing success stories.

With factories in Brisbane, warehouses in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and Auckland, and 425 employees (including 24 apprentices), Stoddart has grown into a powerhouse of diverse divisions: food-service equipment, commercial kitchens, stainless steel plumbing, architectural metalwork, street furniture, and contract fabrication.

Growth brings complexity. Stoddart tamed it with StoreConnect + Salesforce — creating a single source of truth that’s powering their next chapter.

Why StoreConnect Was the Perfect Fit

“Being family-owned, we like to control our own destiny. We’re self-sufficient by nature — and we do a lot of very different things across many sales channels with very different customers.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

When Stoddart moved to Salesforce CRM, they needed an eCommerce platform that wouldn’t fight it.

StoreConnect — 100% native on Salesforce — won instantly.

“We were looking to kill duplicate data and remove extra systems. It made perfect sense to choose a Salesforce-native eCommerce platform. Same product used on multiple sites, powerful features that actually simplify our work — and excellent value for money.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

“Don’t understate the value of true integration.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

“We chose StoreConnect for its integration with Salesforce and its affordability.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

Goodbye Double-Entry, Hello Sanity

Before StoreConnect, every product had to be entered twice — once in the old website, once in the ERP. The result? Orphan records, mismatches, and endless cleanup.

“Double-entering everything created chaos. You’d find products on the website that didn’t exist in the ERP — and vice versa.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

Now? One product record in Salesforce powers every store, every channel, every division.

One Platform, Many Customer Types

Stoddart sells everything from spare parts to multi-million-dollar commercial kitchen fit-outs.

“A plumbing wholesaler is completely different from a fish-and-chip shop owner. Some products fly off the shelf online. Others are fully configured-to-order and start as an expression of interest.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

StoreConnect handles it all from the same Salesforce org:

• True D2C spare-parts store (buy now)
• B2B configurator-style stores (enquiry → quote)
• Variant and related-product features that make complex catalogues simple

“StoreConnect lets us service every customer type perfectly — all from one place. We’re especially impressed with the variant and related-product capabilities as we move spare parts and consumables online.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

Built for the Long Haul

“Stoddart has a completely different dynamic to most companies. You always know where you stand. It’s multi-generational — and the future is genuinely exciting.”

— Shane Slaughter, ICT Manager, Stoddart

In an era when Australian manufacturing is meant to be in decline, Stoddart proves the opposite: local making is not only possible — it’s profitable — especially when you pair it with world-class, unified technology.

We’re proud StoreConnect gets to play a small part in writing the next 70 years of this iconic family success story.

Here’s to many more decades of building, innovating, and staying proudly Australian-made.