Getting Started

 

Things to remember when starting a New Bakery

Location – Research competition in the area

Strong Business plan - Financing

Choose a Name for your Bakery

Register your Business – Licences and Insurance

Products – Ingredients

Advertising – Local paper, radio, flyers, online, coupons, business cards, signs, social media

Baking Equipment and Supplies – B.R.S.

 

Everyone loves the smell of freshly baked bread or cake straight from the oven, just as much as eating those tasty treats! So it's hardly surprising that the hospitality industry and especially bakery businesses thrive no matter what the economic conditions.  Bad times or good, people still need their daily bread.

Opening a new bakery means leaving a lasting memory for your customers and selling popular products that people love and will come back for more.

Many people dream of being able to start a bakery, but don't know where to begin.  It can be an overwhelming experience; challenging and requiring dedication and long hours.

However, with a little determination and a lot of hard work, you can succeed at running a bakery and make your dreams come true.

 

BRS can be there to assist you with your planning decisions.  Whether you buy an existing bakery, a franchise or open a whole new bakery, it takes a special mindset to navigate the challenges of business ownership.

As a business owner, you also need to have the necessary skills to establish and maintain a business. Running a successful bakery requires more than just good bread making skills.

As a bakery owner, you will have the opportunity to make people happy every day as they enjoy your delicious breads, brownies, cakes, cookies, pastries, pies, or other baked goods.

If you aren't a baker yourself, you can employ professional bakers for your bakery, leaving you to greet your customers and manage paperwork or online orders.

If you are currently a baker, opening your own bakery gives you the freedom and flexibility of being your own boss.

When you open a bakery, you have the luxury of designing the type of bakery business that you want. Weigh up your options and put thought into the type of bakery you would like to own.

You could aim to please as many tastes as possible by offering a wide selection of baked goods, or you might choose to specialize in the bakery products of your own choice.

You might decide to open a traditional retail bakery selling a variety of conventional baked goods; breads, cakes, cookies, pies and pastries.  Or you might like to open an Artisan bakery, offering healthy high quality organic baked breads, gluten-free or vegan (e.g.; egg and dairy-free) products. You could decide on opening a specialty bakery that specializes in bagels, cupcakes, personalized cakes or wedding cakes. Or even a combination bakery and café. Some bakeries sell sandwiches and coffee, and have a comfortable seating area where customers can eat breakfast or lunch. There are small bakeries that also do away from having a shop-front and just do their business through the internet.  An online bakery gives you the opportunity to focus purely on baking the perfect goods while customers can pre-order items and then shop online.

Researching the competition in the area can help you decide what items are popular or in high demand including price ranges of various baked goods.  Bear in mind that your bakery ideally should be easily accessible in a convenient location that has a decent flow of traffic and meets all safety requirements. The more people who are exposed to your business, the more likely you are to have someone stop by to make a purchase. Avoid choosing locations too close to direct competitors.  Make sure your location has adequate electricity as well as floor space for all your equipment, walk-in cooler space, baking ovens, mixers, pots, pans, bowls, refrigeration cabinets and display cases.

If you do decide to buy an existing bakery, be cautious as to why the owner wants to sell.

If you have purchased an existing bakery or moved into a building that was formerly a bakery, you probably will be partially equipped.  It is advisable to obtain a full equipment report by a qualified person.

Create a checklist in advance, ideally while you are working on your business plan, and make sure that you have every item on the list.

Interior and Exterior design plays a big part in increasing sales and bringing customers through your bakery.

Creating a warm comfortable environment will ensure that your customers will come back often.

 

BRS can help you with all your kitchen needs and/or baking equipment and machinery as well as individually assist in designing your bakery operation and floor plan.

 

BRS can assist you with providing the best machinery and high quality equipment.  BRS will professionally install all your equipment safely and will regularly service all your machinery.

Some of the equipment you will need is listed below.

Ovens from $15,000.00 - $200,000.00

Ovens vary considerably in quality and price. A high quality Oven is recommended for your baking goods to be successful. Ovens vary from small five tray convection style up to large rack ovens and multiple deck ovens with stone soles for artisan style breads.

A small single oven accommodates as much as five baking trays, while a double rack oven holds up to thirty baking trays.  Deck ovens allow you to bake at different temperatures in separate decks.  If you bake artisan breads, a deck oven would be a good investment, as it gives you a superior baking result due to the stone sole. Types of Ovens are;- Polin Deck Oven, Polin Rack Oven, Polin TV Synt steam tube oven.  Remember you will be providing baked goods for a lot of people for a number of hours per day.  Plan to get enough oven capacity to make sure all your items get baked efficiently.

Retarder Provers/Proofers from $25,000.00 - $55,000.00

Professional bakers would really benefit from a Retarder prover unit where they can control both proving results and times.  Dough can then rise at the right temperature.  Proofing baskets/Proving Cabinets come in various sizes.  For a small bakery, a mobile proofer box/proof cabinet is a good choice.  It holds about 20 pans and can be moved out of the way when you're not using it.  Mobile proving cabinets are generally much less expensive than built-in models.

Dough Sheeters from $8,000.00 - $45,500.00

Efficient pastry production starts with a high quality Dough Sheeter.  These machines can be Manual operation, Semi-Automatic operation or Fully-Automatic operation that includes rolling up the pastry at the end of the cycle.  A fully automatic machine gives consistent results and reduces the use of dusting flour through precise application during the cycle.  They also reduce operator error and fatigue with improved output efficiencies.  Regular checking the condition of the bread moulding belts/sheeter belts/dough moulding belts ensures high-quality finished moulding results.

Bun Divider Rounders & Dough Dividers from $12,500.00 - $26,500.00

These machines are also available in manual and automatic operation which gives consistent results and improved efficiency. BRS provide your machines with moulding plates or bun rounding boards.

Mixers and Mixing Bowls from $2,000.00 - $60,000.00

A combination of both Spiral and Planetary Mixers give maximum flexibility in your bakery. A high quality Spiral Mixer ensures well developed dough of consistent quality.  When used in combination with a chilled water plant and water meter system, again consistent dough and good final baking results are ensured.  Mixers come with stainless steel mixing bowls.  High quality mixing equipment is necessary for any bakery.

Water Meters and Chillers from $4,500.00 - $20,000.00

These are used to control finished dough temperatures depending on the type of dough and the climate.  Water meters and water chillers are essential for consistent, high quality results.

Other Machinery from $3,000.00

Donuts and croissants are popular treats so you may like to get additional equipment such as a Donut Robot, Donut fryer or you may like to use a hand Donut plunger or hand Donut cutter or a Croissant machine. For specialized cake decoration you can purchase various Cake decorating machines or units. Cake Depositors, Biscuit and cookie machines, or bench top fillers.  If you have a specific product such as cookies or pastries BRS has a large range of 'product specific' machines to assist in your production.

Display Cases/Cooling Units and Work Benches from $3,000.00

Your bakery's success depends on how well you can sell your baked goods. If you can display your tasty treats in an attractive and eye-catching way, your customers' mouths will water, and they'll eagerly want to buy a treat or few. Purchase glass display cases to set up at the front of your bakery. Find kitchen benches with lots of space and multiple shelves, which will allow you display many, if not all of the desserts you're serving up. Think about Refrigeration benches, deli showcases, pizza bench, salad bench, or sandwich benches. Cooling cabinets, display cabinets and pie warmers.  If your bakery is going to offer catering you will need catering equipment and a catering bench.

Another important thing to remember is shelving.  You'll want space to store the all your baked items in your shop front, as well as in your kitchen.  You will need space for all your ingredients, other supplies, plates and utensils. Get the sturdiest work benches you can budget for, because they will get a lot of use. Consider your height as you choose what tables to purchase; a tall person trying to work at a too-short table will suffer back pain.

Kitchen Utensils

Baking requires more than an oven and refrigerators. You also need basic kitchen utensils to whip up your recipes. If you plan to have multiple bakers working in the kitchen, you'll want more than one of each of these items. Fill your kitchen with mixing bowls, cake measuring cups and spoons, hand mixers, rolling pins, flat paddles, whisks and spatulas. Don't forget other cake decorating tools like cookie cutters, icing bags and icing tubes might be necessary, as well as oven mitts and baking gloves.

Baking utensils are important in the operation of a bakery.  Make sure you have the right supplies for the products you'd like to make. While it may be tempting for the shop owner to cut corners on such items as baking utensils, doing so is not recommended. High quality utensils such as stainless steel measuring cups and measuring spoons are durable. Silicone or rubber spatulas help the baker reduce the amount of wasted batter and other ingredients by scraping the edges of mixing bowls cleaner than non-flexible spatulas.

Baking sheets/Baking Trays and Baking Racks

BRS offers a vast range of baking trays and pans to assist you. Also, you'll need round cake tins, sheet cake pans, pie pans and muffin tins.  BRS can help you with custom made stainless steel racks and various types of pie pallets or kitchen trays, bread pans, cake tins, baking trollies, banana bread tins, pie trays, pastry trays, bread tins, french stick trays, muffin trays, rack covers, sponge pans, loaf pans, aluminium trays, bread pan lids, bread cooling racks and cooling wires.

Other Supplies

Your shop layout and standard of fitting says a lot about you and your product.  Spend the right amount to present a professional appealing look.  Purchase small signs that you can hang over the display case to list all of your baked items and their prices. Or, purchase small cards to place next to each item in the display case. You'll need a cash register to ring up customers' orders.  If you plan on serving bread or bagels, consider buying proofing baskets or bread baskets to showcase them. Other needed items include Slicers for bread loafs, scales for weighing bulk ingredients. Don't forget to include smaller things, such as packaging paper and boxes, ingredient bins, baking mitts, knives, boner knife, bakers blades, bakers knife, dough knife, baker roll knife, slicer blades, high temp oven wheels, oven globes, oven lights, oven panels, rack covers, trolley covers.

Sinks

Bakeries and other commercial operations need to have two or three different kitchen sinks. You will need a three-department sink (commercial sink) to wash, rinse and sanitize dishes that can't go into the dishwasher.  You will also need a floor mop sink, a wash sink for hand washing and a separate bakery sink for food preparation.

Social Media

A great way to get customers to notice you is by social media.  Advertise your bakery on Facebook! Place up daily photos and specials for the day of your delicious mouthwatering products for sale.

To give you an idea of what you may need and how much your equipment may cost call Bruce Mercer today on 9493 1009 and we can get you started.

 

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Call Bruce Mercer for all W.A. enquiries @ (08) 9493 1009.

For Eastern State enquiries please contact :-

R.V.O. Enterprises Pty Ltd in NSW - www.rvo.com.au