TESTIMONIALS Case Study: Benefits of franchising with a national brand

Meet Bijaya Phuyal, who was able to fulfil his dream of owning a business with Bakers Delight after migrating to Australia from the US. Hear his story below:

After graduating as a Software Engineer in 2000, I moved to Texas and started working for a multinational company; however, I always wanted to own my own business. Shortly after my move to Texas I made the decision to migrate to Australia in 2002. After arriving in Australia I begun working as baker’s assistant at Bakers Delight Rockdale. My cousin had introduced me to Bakers Delight and I was attracted to their strong brand presence and interested in their opportunities to Franchise. In Australia 80% of franchise businesses have survived 10 years or more, compared to only 20% of independent businesses. Even though I had no baking or small business experience, I dreamed of owning my own business and knew that I could make that happen as a Bakers Delight Franchisee.  

I enjoyed my time at the Rockdale bakery and my wife Bidu even joined the company in 2004. At the time Bakers Delight Holdings owned the Rockdale bakery and when they presented me with the opportunity to become a Franchisee, I gladly accepted.

Although I had a large amount of work ahead of me, I knew I had the support of Bakers Delight as well as my family. Bidu has always supported my entrepreneurial endeavours and when I became a Franchisee, it was a very exciting time for the family.  

Bakers Delight provided me with all the necessary training in baking, sales and business as well as assisting me with obtaining finance. The guidance offered was one of the factors that helped me decide to Franchise with Bakers Delight. They are a well-known brand who have been in business since the eighties and I had seen the success of other Franchisees. I liked that Bakers Delight remain a family owned business and that families all over Australia run each bakery. I also knew I wanted grow my business and with 43% of Bakers Delight Franchisees owning more than one bakery, I felt like the sky was the limit.

I now own four, soon to be five, bakeries. With Bakers Delight, I have the opportunity to grow as much as I want. Expanding has been hard work for my family and I and we have had to lean heavily on our staff. To expand I knew we would have to have key employees in each bakery to manage staff under them. Luckily, with the Bakers Delight sign on the door, I have been able to attract high quality and hardworking staff at each bakery.

We believe in the brand so much that we have trained many of our family and friends to become Franchisees who are now enjoying the benefits that a national brand provides. We regularly encourage and support our team members to give business ownership a go and to join the Bakers Delight network themselves. As more people join the network, the stronger the brand becomes.