Bakery Business: Startup Strategy

Are you planning on venturing into the ever-profitable bakery business, then read this write-up to enable you quickly make that decision easily.

‘Bread’ still remains one of the more common popular, stable and easily available foods that you would find in Nigeria today. Bread is consumed by almost everyone; the old, young, rich and poor consume bread on daily basis. It is estimated that bread is the second most consumed snack and due to the high demand of bread by consumers, starting a bread bakery business in Nigeria can be very lucrative.

Apart from the normal production of bread, the bakery is also involved in the making of

• Pies: Meat pies, apple pies, chicken pies, fruit pies etc.
• Pizzas: pepperoni, ham and sausage, mushrooms and garlic, etc.
• Bread: wheat bread, cheese bread, cake bread, fruit bread etc.
• Hotdogs and Burgers: Cheese, Chicken or Beef.
• Donuts: chocolate, jam, etc.
• Sausages of different types and sizes

 Bakery Business still remains one of the best enterprising ventures one can think of setting up in the country. Irrespective of your location, there are always people that want to buy and eat bread and its related products. 

The business is different from other businesses in the sense that no matter how many confectioneries and eateries exist in your town or city, bakers have different flavors and different ideas of what shape or form the final product would eventually taste or look like.

About seventy five percent (75%) of breakfast diets in families, offices and institution are bread related; with a population like ours the bread market is very large. And Bakery business is easy to start anywhere in Nigeria.

Potential Customers for your Bakery Products are:

• Individuals and Families;
• Eateries and Hotels;
• Schools;
• Government Offices;
• Corporate organization;
• Super market

Bread the earliest baked product is a mixture of flour and liquid which is raised or leavened’ by the addition of a growing plant called yeast, giving it its characteristic texture and flavour.

Bread is made with three basic ingredients: grain, water, and bakers’ yeast. The harvested grain is ground according to the type of bread being made. All grains are composed of three parts: bran (the hard outer layer), germ (the reproductive component), and endosperm (the soft inner core). All three parts are ground together to make whole wheat and rye breads. To make white flour, the bran and the germ must be removed. Since bran and germ contain much of the nutrients in grain, the white flour is often “enriched” with vitamins and minerals. Some white flour has also been fortified with fiber and calcium.

The grinding takes place at grain mills, which sell the grain to bakeries in bulk. The bakeries keep the grains in storage sacks until they are ready to be used. In the baking factory, water and yeast are mixed with the flour to make dough. Additional ingredients such as salt, fat, sugar, honey, raisins and nuts are also added in the bakery.

There are different types of bread produced to meet the need of the various classes of customers. It is vital that any entrepreneur intending to venture into the bakery business understand these types of bread.

• White Bread:

It is plain and whitish in color. This category of bread is normally unsliced and its nutritional content is low. It is made essentially for low-income earners. A large percentage of bread falls in this category and most consumers are drawn to it because of its very low price.

• Nourished White Bread:

At the midsection of the bread market are loaves that provide more nutritional value to the consumer. This type of bread usually contains ingredients like eggs, milk, fruits, etc. and generally do not contain unhealthy supplements or additives. This class of bread targets the middle-class households and customers who are conscious about high food standards, nutritional content, quality and taste. These customers are also willing to pay extra for this better and higher quality.

• Special bread:

Refers to wheat bread, whole meal bread and other forms of uncommon bread. This category of bread is usually sold in departmental stores, confectionaries and supermarkets and cost more than the plain white and nourished bread. It requires specialized skills and experience to produce. This category of bread targets the upper class and foreigners who prefer this kind of bred due to health, taste, cultural reasons or life style.

Start Up

Three things are needed apart from finance to start and own a successful bakery:

1. Skill Acquisition
2. Creativity and ingenuity
3. Taste and Flavour

• Acquire the skill: – To start something you need to have the knowledge in other to succeed (note the emphasis on need). Go to a bakery school, learn the basics and various types of cakes and bread this should be your starting point. Practice make perfect they say until you are satisfied, bake for friends and family to perfection.
• Creativity: – Be creative with everything you do and baking makes it easy to show case that creativity. Let your design stand out from the rest. You can learn a lot from the Internet like “YouTube and the likes” to boost your creativity.
• Taste: – Taste is key to success in this business; your cakes and bread should taste as good as they look.

There are different types of bakery options to choose from:

1. Home based or micro bakery (Backyard Bakery): – As the name implies only one person does everything in this type of bakery, you need not employ other people.
2. Sit-down bakery (Eatery): – This type of bakery has a place where customers can dine inside or outside with a menu to pick from. Drinks and coffee are also provided to customers alongside their orders.
3. Counter service bakery: – Here staff attend to customers behind the counter, the goods are displayed where the customer pick from, pays and have them wrapped. This type of bakery is always fast because everything is fresh and ready.
4. Online bakery: – Here you can display your goods to a wider audience or customers by having pictures of your products uploaded online for marketing, you can also add description of services and location of the store or even delivery services if any and a contact numbers. This is done by either creating an official website or you use social media services like ‘Instagram, Facebook, Google+ etc.’
5. Specialty Service Bakeries: – Specialty service bakeries are those that specialize in certain types of baked goods. Purchases from these types of bakeries are pre-ordered. The customer gives a description to bakers what he/she wants to be done, and the bakers would work on the project for a given period of time.

Registration and NAFDAC Approval License

Come up with a name for your bakery and register your company with Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). Another important thing is to register your company with the National Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) and other regulatory bodies. This will make your intending customers feel safe in purchasing your products, this is an important factor seriously considered and should not be over looked.

Note: Check our step-by-step guide on registering your company with CAC

Location

• The environment: – This involves cleanliness, making sure not only your environment but also your neighbors are clean because you would need a certification from NAFDAC.
• Your target customers: – These are people you would want to attract to your business, if you are thinking for the elites then you know it has to be around their location. Interior and exterior design has to be classic to attract your targeted customers, a convenient parking space and a hospitable environment to make them feel comfortable and at home.
• Sufficient Space: – You should have sufficient space for the bakery house and storage space for your bakery equipment’s.
• Retail or wholesale dispatch space: – Here you have some goods on display, already made and a little sitting arrangement or not, depends on how you want it to look. A few staff attending to customers, a list of menus and booking of events.
• No visible bakery: – Ensure that there are no other bakery close to yours, pick a location were people would have to drive or walk a distance to get to another bakery.

Staff

You will need to experience staff in your bakery, if it is a large-scale bakery.

• A Professional or Master Baker: – He knows his way around the bakery, and have the knowledge of every little detail in baking.
• Experience hands: – They will manage the delicate part of your business. I.e. from the manager to casher to checking out etc. (if you intend setting up a factory type bakery).

Setting up a baking on small-scale using a home-based oven.

Equipment

Don’t be afraid or scared, you can get affordable baking equipment’s, because things could be locally made and they work perfectly well. You can get a locally made baking pan, oven, mixing bowls etc. for your workspace.

With the arrival of this unique home-based oven, small investors in Nigeria, who hitherto could not afford to invest in the bakery business because of the high capital involved, can now invest in the business. The oven comes in six different sizes and the prices ranges from =N=70, 000.00 to =N=300, 000.00. While the smallest oven can contain 25 loaves at a time, the biggest can contain 150 loaves of bread and you can bake five to eight times a day. These ovens use charcoal and gas. Charcoal is recommended because of its safety, cost and efficiency for small to medium scale. Go to any factory where ovens are fabricated, give them your specifications and they will produce a suitable one for you.

For a home or backyard small-scale bakery, the following bakery equipment will come in handy:

• Baking pans:
• Weighing scale:
• Mixing bowls:
• Work Table
• Branded Packaging nylon
• Shelves
• Refrigerator
• Other utensils

And the basic baking ingredients such as

• Sugar,
• Yeast,
• Baking fat,
• Flour,
• Salt and
• Water

A standby generator will also be required.

To set up a large-scale bakery stocked with modern machinery: the major equipment include:

• Industrial baking oven
• Mixing Machine
• Milling machine
• Dough dividers
• Proofing chamber: A proofing cabinet is an essential piece of bakery equipment that allows you to control production variables for good and perfect dough.
• Bread slicer for selling sliced bread
• Standby generator
• Supply truck/van: To aid the distribution of your bakery products.
• Bakery display case

You can also check other business ideas here