One Warehouse, Three Businesses: How Oskar’s Wooden Ark Runs on One Operational Backbone

Three brands, one warehouse

Oskar’s Wooden Ark was founded on the belief that the toys children play with genuinely matter. The business stocks brands rooted in natural materials, craftsmanship and developmental value, many from the Waldorf/Steiner tradition, championing open-ended play over anything flashy or disposable.

That philosophy didn’t stay contained to one storefront for long.

Over time, the Adelaide-based team grew into two further businesses, run alongside the original: Wooden Playroom, a wholesale supplier to independent toy retailers, and Mercurius Australia, which supplies Steiner curriculum materials and art supplies to schools.

Today all three run from a single central warehouse in Adelaide, South Australia, with a team of 10 to 15 people scaling up to meet peak season demand across all three arms.

Annette says:

“Running three distinct businesses – each presenting a different face to the world – from one central warehouse meant we were managing stock, orders, and fulfillment across multiple systems simultaneously, and the cracks were starting to show.”

When spreadsheets can’t keep three businesses in sync

Before Brightpearl and Inventory Planner, the group leaned heavily on spreadsheets and manual importing and exporting between multiple Shopify stores. It was workable at a small scale, but strained as order volumes and SKU counts grew across all three businesses at once.

By the time the group brought in Brightpearl, the SKU count had grown to a point where a stock discrepancy could easily go unnoticed until it surfaced as an oversell or overstock – a sign the spreadsheet approach had reached its ceiling.

Annette says:

“By the time we brought in Brightpearl, we were running three Shopify stores and reconciling stock by hand – our SKU count had grown to the point where a stock discrepancy could easily sit undetected until highlighted by over-sell or over-stock, and it was clear the spreadsheet approach couldn’t continue to scale or meet another peak season.”

The core issue wasn’t any single business – it was that each one had its own approach to stock management, with no single view of what was actually sitting in the warehouse.

Annette says:

“We had no single view of what was actually in the warehouse – reconciling that manually across three Shopify stores via spreadsheet exports was a constant drain on time and accuracy. Stock discrepancies and the sheer administrative burden of keeping everything in sync were the breaking points.”

Whatever solution came next had one non-negotiable requirement: it needed to centralize operations across all three businesses without flattening the distinct identity each brand needed to maintain – and it needed to integrate deeply with Shopify, given the group’s existing infrastructure.

The group looked at a couple of other inventory platforms first, but most were built around a single storefront, or didn’t connect with the rest of the stack – Xero, ShipStation, and Shopify. None offered the multi-brand, multi-channel view the group needed without heavy customization.

Annette says:

“We looked at a couple of other inventory platforms, but most were built around a single storefront, or didn’t link with our other systems. None offered the multi-brand, multi-channel view we needed without heavy customization.”

A single source of truth, without losing three brand identities

With Brightpearl and Inventory Planner in place, the group now runs its stock, orders and fulfillment from one central system – while still packing and presenting each order in a way that fits the brand it came from, whether that’s a retail gift order for Oskar’s Wooden Ark, a trade order for Wooden Playroom, or an education order for Mercurius.

Annette says:

“The single biggest change is having one true picture of stock across all three businesses – the warehouse team works from one central system, can easily see where each order has come from, and can still pack and present it appropriately for the brand it’s serving.”

The tech stack now runs Shopify Plus, Brightpearl, Inventory Planner, Klaviyo, ShipStation and Xero, all working together in place of the old cycle of manual exports and imports.

Annette says:

“We now run Shopify Plus, Brightpearl, Inventory Planner, Klaviyo, ShipStation, and Xero – and while there’s always a learning curve, having everything talking to each other coherently has been transformative compared to the spreadsheet era.”

Cutting out the manual reconciliation cycle

The manual import/export cycle that used to eat hours of operational time each week is gone, and stock accuracy across the B2C, wholesale and education arms has improved significantly as a result.

Annette says:

“We’ve eliminated the manual import/export cycle that was eating hours of operational time each week, and stock accuracy across the B2C, wholesale, and education arms has improved significantly as a result.”

Put a number on it, and the hours spent manually syncing stock and order data across three platforms each week have been almost entirely reclaimed – the equivalent of roughly half a full-time role, on top of the separate time savings in customer service. Inventory itself has gotten leaner too, with the group now carrying less stock while still meeting seasonal demand.

Annette says:

“The hours we were spending each week manually syncing stock and order data across three platforms have been almost entirely reclaimed – roughly the equivalent of half an FTE freed up, on top of the reduction in Customer Service time spent juggling orders. With our inventory, we are now carrying a much leaner inventory, while meeting seasonal demand.”

Customer service has centralized around Brightpearl too, with the CX team now operating directly out of it rather than jumping between systems to answer simple questions or track down order status.

Annette says:

“The operations side of our Customer Service has also centralized, with Brightpearl being the operations hub our CX team operates from. The team spent considerable time jumping in and out of different systems to answer simple questions and guide order flow.”

Order automation has had one of the clearest impacts of all: approx. 80% of orders flow directly to the warehouse without a customer service touch-point.

Annette says:

“The order automations Brightpearl offers has significantly reduced CX order touchpoints in approximately 80% of our orders”

Running three businesses that couldn’t run this way before

Taken together, the shift means the group can now do something that simply wasn’t possible under the old setup: run three genuinely distinct businesses – with different customer bases, price points and ordering models – from a single warehouse operation, with one accurate view of stock at all times.

Annette says:

“We can run three genuinely distinct businesses with different customer bases, price points, and ordering models from a single warehouse operation – with one accurate view of stock at all times.”

Building toward category leadership, without the complexity tax

Looking ahead, the goal is category leadership across all three arms: Oskar’s Wooden Ark as Australia’s go-to premium toy retailer, Wooden Playroom as a trusted wholesale partner for independent retailers, and Mercurius as the cornerstone supplier for Steiner education in the country.

Annette says:

“We want to deepen our category leadership across all three arms while continuing to scale efficiently from our centralized Adelaide operation – growth without a proportional blowout in complexity.”

The operational foundation now in place is what makes that growth realistic rather than just aspirational, with room to add SKUs, channels and volume without reintroducing the chaos of the old spreadsheet era.

Annette says:

“The infrastructure we’ve built gives us the foundation to add SKUs, channels, and volume without the operational chaos we had before – that scalability is what makes growth achievable.”

Next on the list:

Sharpening the customer experience layer, from personalization to email automation and on-site discovery, alongside anything that further tightens the connection between the three businesses.

Find out how Brightpearl can help your business grow fearlessly with a free demo.