TESTIMONIALS Baking A New Bakery From Scratch

You would think that after more than two decades as a Bakers Delight Franchisee, Adrian Anderson had seen and done it all as a small business operator. But when a rare opportunity to build a brand new bakery from the ground up came along, he jumped at the chance to both challenge himself and grow his business further. Here’s his story….

When I left my job as an Account Manager at Mars Confectionary 21 years ago, I really wasn’t sure what to do next. I knew I wanted to go into business for myself but there were so many options out there. Our first business was a general store in central Victoria but we soon realised we wanted something a little more fast paced.

It was my accountant who suggested buying a Bakers Delight franchise and after doing plenty of research, we took the plunge and bought the Waurn Ponds bakery. We didn’t know the first thing about baking so the first few years were tough while we learnt the ropes, but throwing ourselves into a new business made it an exciting time for us.

Over 20 years later we still love it – you don’t

do something for 20 years unless you believe

in the company and product!

In recent years we had been thinking about buying a new bakery and when Armstrong Creek came up, we jumped at it.  It was a new location for Bakers Delight (a Greenfield site) so we knew it would be hard work but the site is in a growth area with lots of young families and is a perfect demographic for us. We didn’t consider anything else.

While it was new territory for us, we were fortunate to have the full support of Bakers Delight behind us to make sure everything came together smoothly. We had people to help us negotiate the lease and had weekly conversations with Regional and Area Managers which really helped us understand what to expect, where to look for staff, how to establish a profitable business from the ground up and more.

By the time opening day came around we were well and truly ready for it! We had the team organised and our Area Manager was on site for a few days to help us out. In fact they provided some funding to produce vouchers for us to give away which was really helpful.

Despite our great planning, the pandemic came along in 2020 to disrupt things when we least expected it. Operating was very stop/start in early parts and we had to carry some staff for a while. But fortunately Bakers Delight was considered an essential service and permitted to keep trading and we eventually we found our groove. Our Area Manager had plenty of great ideas about how to keep promoting ourselves through the on again/off again lockdowns and we have pretty much stayed 20% above budget since day one.

The whole thing has been a great experience for us and has set us up for the next chapter in our lives as small business owners. From here we’ll be looking at a good exit strategy. One option is to sell Waurn Ponds at the end of next year and keep this one for another five years before selling it to perhaps retire. But that’s a future story…..