Sophie Grey on how she financed the start-up phase...
“I was working from home to start with running a catering company and cooking from my kitchen. I did that until the end of 1996 and then got the premises and we started working from there in ’97. Most of it was used for storage.
“When we began to set up the bakery we cleared the premises out, which left us a lot of space for ovens where we set up the bakery area.”
The margins are quite low so you have to make sure your profit margin is present with every product you make
On employment issues in the catering industry...
“I hoped that I’d have better luck with staffing issues, but the main problem in the whole catering industry is staff – they tend to be fairly unreliable.
“I’m lucky with some, but as you grow the business you need more employees. I find the more staff I employ, the higher chance of getting unreliable staff.”
Advice for entrepreneurs wanting to go into the bakery industry...
“Be prepared to work hard, that would be the main thing. Also, you should be very good at maths: everything is to do with maths in the bakery business.
“The margins are quite low so you have to make sure your profit margin is present with every product you make, and it’s all about doing volume in bakery. You must also make sure you have your business plan and costing in place.”
