As featured in the Sancell Blog

Using bubble bags, thermal liners, courier bags and gel packs, Butterbing are able to ship their Cookie Sandwiches far and wide.

This week we had the pleasure of going out to meet Simone Clark, General Manager of buttercream biscuit juggernaut, Butterbing. Butterbing make arguably Australia’s most delicious cookie sandwiches in Sancell’s home town of Melbourne. We have the pleasure of supplying them with protective packaging and cold chain solutions that allow them to send their tasty morsels to connoisseur’s, cafe’s and restaurants all around the country.



Butterbing have invested a great deal of time, money and creative energy into building and growing their brand over the last 5 years. Product development and packaging have been critical components to their popularity and subsequent growth. As a predominantly online business it has been imperative to create shipping solutions that ensure the finished product arrives fresh and safe in their beautiful bespoke cartons and canisters, ready to eat.

Working closely with State Manager Eddie Yamanyilmaz, Simone and her crew have developed a complete solution for shipping temperature sensitive goods all around Australia, even as far as Geraldton in WA! Collaboratively, the pair have created a range of solutions for a variety of order quantities and destinations.

Online gift pack orders are sent out in the signature Butterbing magenta canister. To ensure each canister arrives at its destination safely (and most importantly, with the cookie sandwiches ready to devour!) a small snug fitting bag with adhesive strip is used to secure the goods before being slipped into a convenient Sancell courier satchel for sending. The large 30mm bubbles provide considerable cushioning and resistance to impact during transit.



For small to medium cafe, restaurant and catering orders Simone and Eddie developed a purpose engineered larger 30mm bubble bag which snugly fits a single carton or 3 gorgeous canisters. These bubble bags are supplied on an easy to dispense roll which reduces handling and speeds up the production line. Let’s face it, if the Butterbing crew didn’t pack these insanely tasty cookie sandwiches quickly they would probably never make it to the customers… they are seriously so damn delicious!

Large orders are dispatched in a robust outer carton and lined with a custom made Sancell metalised-polyester thermal liner. Three inner cartons fit snuggly side by side inside the liner. The liner is made specifically to safely enclose and protect the highly perishable contents within. Sancell Protecta Chill gel packs are then placed in the carton to regulate temperatures throughout the journey. The thermal liner minimises radiant heat transfer whilst retaining the cold supplied by the gel packs, creating a temporarily chilled environment for minimal cost.

Working with growing companies like Butterbing who are willing to try new things and push the boundaries is what Sancell is all about. Using Sancell bubble bags, thermal liners, courier bags and gel packs, Butterbing are able to confidently ship their Cookie Sandwiches far and wide. We love nothing more than working with creative companies to develop unique shipping solutions, so contact us today to discuss your tailored solution.

As featured in the Dandenong Journal written by Casey Neill

Butterbing started as an honesty stall on a Fitzroy North front porch.
Simone Clark now sells her Dandenong South-baked sandwich cookies to cafes across the country.

“It started in my home kitchen in 2013,” she said.
She’d place baked goods in a fridge on her front porch and neighbours would grab them and leave cash behind.
“I would also bake and deliver to nearby cafes either by foot or by bike,” Simone said.
“From there our customer base grew.” She moved into a commercial kitchen in Eumemmerring through a sublease she found on Gumtree, and recently into a Dandenong South factory space. “We’re pretty much dotted all over cafes around Australia now,” she said.

Butterbing exclusively makes brownie cookie sandwiches filled with buttercream and ganache. Simone was the first to market with the product so had to pioneer the packaging and more. “We have over 50 recipes of buttercream on rotation,” Simone said.
“It’s always the same chocolate cookie. We just change the centre. “Initially when the bakery started I had a whole range of products and my focus was very different.
“About six months into that I started making these cookie sandwiches. They just were an instant hit. “People were drawn to them. They took over.”

She rebranded as a cookie company instead of a general baking company.
“Typically cookies are quite dry. Ours are really quite the opposite of that. “They’re, basically, a cake in cookie form. They’re really moreish. “I don’t have a traditional sweet palate. They are pretty sweet but they’re not excessively sweet. “We use salt to tone it down.”

Simone has found a niche in the speciality coffee scene and wants to expand her reach further interstate.
“But we want to make sure that we stay a classic product,” she said. “We’re not quite interested in being a food trend.” Every Butterbing cookie is handmade, from the batter through to the flavours in the buttercream.“It’s very much a labour of love,” Simone said.

“We make about eight different flavours a week.” They’re born from discussions around the lunch table, food trends and partnerships with other companies. “It’s quite hard for people to move away from caramel and chocolate,” she said. “It’s typically the combination that people absolutely love. “Whatever goes well with chocolate, we give it a go.”

Simone’s team also makes birthday cake-sized Butterbings and recently introduced a gender reveal sandwich cookie.

As featured on The Party Bebe

Have you heard of Butterbing's? This Melbourne-based co. makes the most delicious chocolate brownie cookie sandwiches and delivers Australia-wide!

I recently served Triple Chocolate Butterbing's at an event in Melbourne and couldn't get over the response from guests; everyone wanted to know where these cookie sandwiches were from! They truly are delicious.

I was thrilled to catch up with Simone Clark from Butterbing Cookie Sandwiches and hear what's in store for this innovative Australian company.

Hi Simone, please tell us about Butterbing Cookie Sandwiches and how your brand started.

Butterbing Cookie Sandwiches started in my home kitchen in 2014 with a small batch made from ingredients from the local supermarket. I had the desire to create a delicious dessert that was new and unique, so the Butterbing was born! I’ve always been passionate about baking and food, as well as being interested in small business management. It was a tonne of hard work but we’ve grown over the years to the company it is today!

The brownies are sooo dense and delicious and the buttercream fillings are just delightful, can you share some baking tips and tricks with us?

Thank you! Using high-quality ingredients such as couverture chocolate and local free-range eggs is always a great idea. My biggest baking tip is ‘never be satisfied!’ Your method and recipe can always improve so continue working hard to create the yummiest dish you can. Even now we’re constantly reviewing and tweaking our methods to improve our product. We want Butterbings to be the best they possibly can be!

What are your most popular flavours?

Our most popular flavours are what we call our ‘Hero Mix’, Salted Caramel, Peanut Butter, Nutella and Vanilla. They’re flavours that people know and love outside the cookie sandwiches, so people are always keen to try them!

Pictured above is a Butterboom - a 1.5kg cookie sandwich which is perfect for birthdays and celebrations. Butterbing even has a gender reveal range with pink or blue buttercream inside!

The online store and delivery service is super convenient for busy parents
Totally! In Melbourne where we’re based, we actually offer same-day delivery. We ship Australia wide which we’re really excited about, however it does take a tiny bit longer. We want everyone in Australia to be able to try our cookie sandwiches!

Lastly, can you share some insights into what's ahead for Butterbing?

We’re really keen about developing a wedding range for our customers. We’ll be looking into catering more events, so a lot of exciting things on the horizon! More broadly, we’re planning on expanding by releasing more delicious flavours and stocking in more cafes around Australia.

As Featured in Smart Company written by Dinushi Dias

Butterbing Cookie Sandwiches founder Simone Clark’s business journey began in her Fitzroy home-kitchen with ingredients from her local IGA supermarket, a few bowls and a standard kitchen mixer back in 2013. She would bake an assortment of slices and biscuits and then walk them down to her first customers, the local cafes. Neighbourhood friends could also sample her treats from an “honesty fridge” on her front porch.

“It started off as an esky, then we updated to a little bar fridge,” Clark told SmartCompany.
“Our neighbours would come usually after dinner and put $3 in an envelope and slide it under my door.”

After a few months of inventing sweet-tooth delights, Clark created a brownie-cookie sandwich filled with buttercream, which she called “brownie kisses” and they became an instant hit. “It quickly took over everything,” she says.

“I decided to stop making other products and focused [on this].”

The unexpected popularity saw Clark baking up to 16 hours a day with a home oven that could only fit six cookies at a time. She would then deliver the cookies herself on a new bicycle she was able to purchase. As demand spiked, Clark had to move the business out of her home and into a commercial kitchen. She managed to find one on Gumtree with a caterer looking to share their commercial kitchen to keep up with rent payments. Today, she drives more than 100 kilometres a day to get to and from Butterbing’s commercial kitchen.

“I still operate the same way, I push our capacity as far as we can go before putting money in any upgrade,” she says.

“If I was given a $100,000 to start I probably would’ve made some silly decisions.”

Instead, Clark’s first major purchase was a $2000 kitchen mixer.

“I just had to keep making more cookies and working long hours,” she says.

Today, Butterbing generates $75,000 a month in sales with the production of 9000 cookies a week.

“At the end of the day, it’s a cookie but you add on top of that the branding, marketing and level of service – that’s what makes our company,” Clark says.

Turning a recipe into a reputable brand
Because she can’t patent or trademark her cookie recipe, Clark has invested heavily in building a strong, recognisable and reputable brand so Butterbing remains her customer’s first choice for sandwich cookies.

“We locked down the name so that’s what we’re known for,” she says.

Butterbing stocks more than 100 cafes around Melbourne and will be launching a new website soon to push out more online sales. The business has been completely bootstrapped with every new purchase carefully considered by Clark. With a focus on producing a premium product with quality ingredients that aligns with the brand’s core values, Clark says she is slowly expanding the business across the eastern seaboard and neighbouring states.

“It’s trying to find people we trust with distribution to ensure our brand is represented properly,” she says.

Butterbing is also tapping into event catering and looking at breaking into Asia next year.

“Our research shows there is a lot of potential for us there,” Clark says.

Working through tough challenges everyday
“Each phase of the business has different types of challenges,” Clark says.

“At the beginning, it was me trying to stay awake.”

Butterbing is currently expanding its team and as a growing business, Clark says it’s critical employees understand where the money comes from and what every dollar spent means for them.

“The first [employees] have had the advantage of seeing us at the every beginning, they’ve seen the struggles, they’ve seen how hard we’ve worked to get to this stage,” she says.

“It’s really hard to get people who have an empathetic nature so when they come in they really care about their work and how they affect the brand.”

Clark now dedicates a full day to hiring so she can spend time with candidates to see whether they’ll fit well with the team and business.

“We adamantly call references, you can learn a lot from them,” she says.

Good decision-making is another major challenge Clark is learning on the go.

“When a problem comes to me I’ll just fix it but more and more are coming and the consequences are getting bigger and bigger,” she says.

As Butterbing is looking for a new kitchen, Clark says she may be soon be signing on to a three-year lease at $80,000 a year.

“I’ve got eight employees depending on me and if I don’t do it well and for some reason the business fails, I’ve also got this long lease to deal with,” she says.

But this hefty responsibility only makes Clark more focused and driven.

“Now I’m well and truly invested and I’ve got to keep on going,” she says.

As featured on the Xero Blog written by Lucy Godwin

From left: Sarah, Simone, Sheryl, Jacqui and Josh

Earlier this week, Square and Startup Week 2016 presented Ladies Who Launch: a panel featuring some of Australia’s inspiring business owners – who just happen to be women. Around 200 of us gathered at 524 Flinders Street to hear from four successful founders: Sarah Hamilton of Bellabox, Simone Clark of Butterbing Cookie Sandwiches, Sheryl Thai of Cupcake Central + the League of Extraordinary Women, and Jacqui Bull of Sidekicker. The panel was hosted Josh McNicol, Head of Marketing and Communications for Square Australia.
As Josh and the four panelists discussed careers, challenges and lessons they’ve had along the way, several interesting themes emerged.

I didn’t see myself as a “female” entrepreneur

What is a “female” entrepreneur, exactly? Is she any different than a male entrepreneur?
None of the panelists had ever thought of themselves as “female entrepreneurs” – until they encountered somebody who treated them differently to their male counterparts.

“Often I’m not taken seriously,” Simone said. “When looking for a new lease or sourcing new suppliers – anything that involves money – people would grossly over-quote me or simply never reply to my emails.”

She decided to change the way she branded herself in attempt to combat any would-be sexists she might encounter. “I went from referring to my business as a ‘cookie bakery’ to a ‘wholesale cookie manufacturer’,” she explained with a smile.
Sheryl lamented the curious fact that many men are intimidated by her success. “When I go on dates I generally tell people I’m unemployed, at first. All too often, when I eventually tell them what I really do, they actually tell me that they’re really intimidated – and I never hear from them again.”

So are there any differences between male and female entrepreneurs?

Is the term “female entrepreneur” useful? When you think about it, it can seem redundant. Should we have different prefixes for all entrepreneurs that don’t fit the “straight, white male” profile?
Sarah was quick to point out the ridiculousness of the term “mumpreneur”. “I never realised I was being discriminated against until I became a mum,” she said.
“One time was at an event with my boyfriend, and everyone assumed that – because I had a business and kids – I worked from home with the kids under my feet. They’d make complete assumptions and say things like ‘Oh, that’s nice that you get to work from home’, and I’d think – ‘but I have an office!’
“I’m just someone who runs a business. I happen to be a woman. I happen to have kids.
“We shouldn’t mess around with the term entrepreneur,” she emphasised.
Jacqui has had a different experience – she’s noticed she stands out against countless male fish in the tech sea, which can work in her favour.
“People are interested in a female doing a tech startup because it’s rare,” she mused. “I’ve been lucky that this has worked to my advantage – for me it’s been a positive thing.”
Of course, it would be wonderful to see a world where it’s unsurprising to meet a tech entrepreneur who is also a woman. “If we can inspire both men and women to get involved in business, that’s great,” she says.

Gender aside – as a business owner, how do you grow? How do you choose what to prioritise?

For Sheryl, sound processes were essential to business growth.
“Because we had consistent systems in place, we could seamlessly hand over our roles to staff once we started to hire people. It also means you can completely trust your staff to do their job properly – leaving you to focus on the business,” she explains.
Sarah explains that product was always their number one focus. “Secondly, we looked at how to acquire people. Social media was one of this biggest channels for us, and we were lucky to hire a guy who was fantastic with Facebook advertising.
“I’d say it’s vital that you’re honest about the people you need. When their work is good and you pay them well, it’s a worthwhile investment – because it’s the only way you’ll get the results you need.”

What about your experience would you like to share with aspiring entrepreneurs?

Jacqui is determined to clear up the misconception that, in the business world, startups need to raise money from the beginning.
“It’s more important to get your customers – then retain them; make sure you can service a high volume; figure out if your processes will support that; and will your product support that,” she advises.
“You know it’s going to be hard – but you don’t know how hard,” warns Simone. “The best word to describe it is ‘grit’. There are hard times and a lack of sleep on this lonely journey. There’s no money for a while. You have to sacrifice your social life.
“If there’s one thing I could change, it would be to go back and look after my health better during that time,” she says.

So how can we encourage more women to become entrepreneurs?

Even if gender shouldn’t make a difference in the business world; the fact remains that it’s still an arena dominated by men. What, then, is the best way to promote entrepreneurialism to girls and women?
It was clear that each of the panelists agreed quotas are the wrong approach to encouraging diversity. As a small business owner, Simone pointed out that some roles are quite niche and don’t necessarily receive a lot of applicants.
“People need to be passionate and inspiring,” she argues “So adjusting your hiring to meet a quota when the selection pool is already small can be detrimental to success.”
Sarah believes we need to send the equality message from an early age. “My kids will go to a coed school – how can we eradicate gender issues if we separate kids and don’t understand one another? Of course, it’s not just schools but communities that need to work towards fixing the issue.
“In the workforce, we need internal programmes that facilitate female leaders, and we need to speak to women – ask them what they need and how they can be equipped with confidence. I respect female and male business leaders equally, but there are a lot more barriers standing in the way of female entrepreneurs.”
Sheryl referenced Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg. “We need to raise girls to become women who view the world as an equal playing field. We need to encourage women to step up and lean in,” she explained.
“We need to inspire people, make them realise ‘hey, I could be that person too – if she can make it happen, then I can.’”

As Featured in Smudge Eats

When the wafting smell of brownies assaults your senses as you walk in the front door, you know there is something good inside.

And in Simone Clark’s kitchen, something good would be an understatement. Simone is the one to thank for delicious Butterbings – moreish brownie sandwiches that have customers on a goose chase around Melbourne hunting down new flavours each week.

The discovery of Butterbings originates from humble beginnings. Simone’s boyfriend worked in a local Melbourne café, North Carlton Canteen, and was on the hunt for someone to provide baked goods to line their shelves. Simone worked as a graphic designer, with no formal training in the food industry when she discovered her passion for baking and started to make slices and cakes to stand tall on the front line alongside her now infamous Butterbings.

Hands were quick to grab the cookie sandwiches, and Simone kissed goodbye to the cakes and focused solely on her Butterbings. And Melbourne is thanking her with each sweet bite. The remnants of crumbly cookies are not the only thing on Melbourne’s’ lips.

The name Butterbing is now very well known and Simone used her fridge as a whiteboard, covering it in possible names before landing on the jackpot, it’s baking related and it embodies the fun the gang have making them. And it’s unique, if you type Butterbing into Google, her website is the first thing that comes up.

If you haven’t already had the privilege of tasting one, Butterbings are two dark chocolate brownies, glued together with delicious lashings of thick buttercream. But not just any old buttercream; the flavours change each week. And the chase to taste each flavour has gained a cult following, as Melburnians all across the city hike to find their favourite tantalising flavour.

The crew make about 6,000 each week. Let us repeat, 6,000! And with a new oven ready to be installed, the capacity is about to double, so the only limit on how many Butterbings you can eat is the size of your stomach.

Each cookie is lovingly hand made, and it’s the love that is poured into each Butterbing that sets it apart from other cookie sandwiches. The flavour you’re tasting is nothing but natural. The crew use local free-range eggs and natural ingredients to create flavours that cut through the richness of the chocolate brownie.

When you bite into a Butterbing, note that the buttercream doesn’t ooze everywhere and the brownie doesn’t fall to pieces. It’s the perfect amount of chewiness to crunch, the perfect level of creaminess to thickness, and the perfect size to fill your palm. The recipe hasn’t been perfected, and has to be adjusted depending on the temperature. They need to taste good, look good, and be durable for transit, so the recipe adapts to meet these three criteria.

Speaking of delivery, if you’re lucky enough to be in inner city Melbourne, you can place an order online, and one of the lovely couriers from Cargone Bike Couriers will hand deliver your cookies to you, on their bike and all.

And once you grab it you won’t want to let it go. It’s this emotional attachment to Butterbings that has created its loyal following. Simone has also developed emotional attachment to certain flavours and finds it hard to say goodbye to some of her rotating favourites. But you can always rely on Peanut Butter and Salted Caramel to line the shelf of your nearest cafe. They are the two most popular, and the kitchen churns out 25 litres of salted caramel each week to keep up with Melbourne’s demand for a tang of salty and a mouthful of sweet.

Rotating flavours include choc orange, lamington, espresso, coconut, hazelnut and mint and choc chip. With requests in the pipeline for weird and whacky flavours like maple bacon, customers are kept on their toes; not knowing what flavour will be churned out of the Butterbing kitchen next.

And the future is set to hold something chocolatety and sweet. There is no sign of Butterbings departing our shores. They’ve even started making Butterbooms; a gigantic cookie sandwich that is 1.5kg and 24cm. Simply choose your buttercream flavour and wow your friends at your next birthday party.

Simone has plans to open a pop-up inside a stockist, where customers can beeline to Butterbing to find all the flavours. So you won’t have to curb your chocolate infused cravings any time soon, phewf.

To celebrate its first birthday, Butterbing is giving away 250 of its signature butter-cream-filled brownie cookies.

As featured in Broadsheet Melbourne written by David Bulafkin

It’s been a big year for Melbourne-based cookie legends Butterbing. What started as a means to fund globetrotting adventures for founders Simone Clark and Trevor Stubbs, turned into a roaring success, with more than 5000 cookies now distributed each week to stockists around the city.
“Butterbing began with many late-night baking disasters and endless coffee,” says Clark. But the caffeine-fuelled trial-and-error system paid off. A year in, business is booming, and to say thanks, the wholesale bakery is teaming up with Manchester Press this Friday October 16 and giving away a trademark cookie sandwich with every coffee bought.
The offer only lasts for the first 250 coffees – or other hot beverage of your choice – on the day. Flavours include salted caramel, espresso, peanut butter and Nutella. And if you’re one of the lucky ones to get a Butterbing in the morning (we assume they won’t last longer), you go into the draw to win the Butterboom: a mammoth 1.5-kilogram, 25-centimetre salted caramel Butterbing cookie. You might need a bigger coffee for that one.
Remember: first in, best-dressed.
Offer from 9am at Manchester Press, 8 Rankins Lane, Melbourne.
butterbing.com.au/shop