Bakery Review — February-March 2018

FeAtURe BAKERY REVIEw

Fostering Success of

Bakery Outlets

T

he bakery and confectionery

business of post-modern India

has good potential to grow. This is

natural considering the fact that

today’s urban India has huge numbers

of nuclear families, many of whom have

very little time at their disposal to cook

elaborate meals. This trend is expected

to gain further momentum in the near

future. In such a scenario, the demand for

ready-to-eat bakery products is expected

to increase, especially when people are

looking for quick lunch options to save time.

The popularity of global food & beverages

in Indian palates (for example burger,

pizza), along with significant increase in

disposable incomes across pockets of

middle class India during the last decade

has also contributed to the growth of the

Indian bakery and confectionery industry.

The mushrooming of retail chains in urban

India selling an impressive array of bakery

and confectionery products is a reflection

of these trends. We have seen that over the

past few years, the Indian bakery industry

has been growing at a CAGR ranging

between 12-15 percent, and this growth

trend is likely to continue in the near future.

So we can see that the entrepreneurs

thinking of entering the bakery and

confectionery business of India do

have impressive potential to garner

lucrative profits. However, potential

doesn’t automatically entail reality. The

entrepreneurs would be needing various

factors to translate this potential in to the

reality of lucrative revenues and profits.

The entrepreneurs can enter the

promising but equally challenging Indian

bakery and confectionery business through

a number of routes. One of them is by

opening of a stand-alone bakery outlet.

Here we would discuss some of the

fundamental factors which are necessary

to make your bakery outlet a successful

enterprise, in the urban Indian context.

However, here I would like to mention

that here we are not only considering

home bakers but any entrepreneur who

is running a bakery outlet, preferably a

stand-alone bakery outlet, and neither

we are taking into account of the legal

rigmaroles necessary to run a bakery

business in India. Succinctly, we are not

taking into account of the factors needed

to merely operate a bakery outlet, but are

considering the factors which are required

to make an enviable success story out of

your bakery outlet.

Checking Costs

One of the factors that an entrepreneur

running a bakery outlet should take care

of is the variable cost. This is particularly

relevant if you have started your stand-

alone bakery outlet with a limited budget to

back you. Rather than cutting down on the

quality of ingredients, which can adversely

affect the quality of the entrepreneur’s

products, she/he should see that there is

no or minimal wastage of raw materials in

the production process.

Having energy-efficient appliances, and

procuring the right supplies from the right

supplier in right quantities at the right

time can also be helpful in keeping the

By Swarnendu Biswas