Bakery Business Development Plan Australia - Eat-Fresh Bakery

Discuss About The Bakery Business Development Plan Australia?

We plan to open the Eat-Fresh bakery in a small outlet about 750 square feet in downtown in a quaint historical building. This is quite a popular hangout spot for youngsters and tourists alike. This is also a centre for many small and prime businesses and therefore a convenient eat-out joint for their employees as well. This place also works as a walking plaza during the weekends and business is brisk at all days of the week (BarNir Anat, 2012).

In the initial period we plan to rent the shop to set up a small bakery in front and a baking unit at the back. The space we have chosen had been rented by a bakery and the previous owners are disposing off the equipment which we plan to purchase. To rent the space and purchase the equipment we plan to take a loan and invest some of the personal savings to cover the start-up costs (Saeed Khanagha, Henk Volberda, & Ilan Oshri, 2017).

In the bakery business the products and the management team both play a very important role. The team which will convert the vision of Eat-Fresh into a reality is led by a very successful baker who comes to the Eat-Fresh bakery with more than 10 years of baking experience and is assisted by two assistant bakers who have been at the top of their class in the baking school and come with the fresh ideas about the products in their minds (Donna Kelley, 2011).  Our bakery director has been in this business for period of five years and brings the financial and business management skills to our new business. Marketing is an important aspect for any business and in this area our marketing manager brings an experience of having worked in PR and advertising department of the best restaurant of the city for a period of three years (Andreu Turro, David Urbano, Marta Peris-Ortiz, 2014).

The Eat-Fresh bakery aims to be a bakery that can provide wholesome yet delectable food options to its customers and we aim to provide delicious baked treats to our consumers at affordable prices. We also look forward to catering to the consumers with special dietary restrictions and preferences so that they too can enjoy wholesome goodness of deliciously baked goods (Bernd W. Wirtz, Adriano Pistoia, Sebastian Ullrich, Vincent Gottel, 2015).

Our main objectives for the first year are:

• Creating a market presence in the area to achieve maximum sales and a loyal customer base.
• To have a fully functional menu towards the end of the first quarter.
• To have working storefront for the Eat-Fresh bakery.
• To diversify into home delivery by the end of the fourth quarter (Bernd W. Wirtz, Adriano Pistoia, Sebastian Ullrich, Vincent Gottel, 2015).

Eat-Fresh bakery plans to offer a variety of baked items to its consumers. It will have the traditional products like breads,pizzas, sweet baked goodies, biscuits and cookies, and an array of breakfast pastries. Besides this we also plan to offer spelt bread, yeast free breads, dairy free pastries and muffins, and also egg free baked products to cater to a large section of consumers (Bernd W. Wirtz, Adriano Pistoia, Sebastian Ullrich, & Vincent Gottel, 2015).

Bread is one of the staple foods in Australia and in the year 2016 alone almost 72.3% of grocery buyers purchased bread at least once in a seven-day period, spending approximately 89.6 million dollars in a year on just bread. The consumer base has risen by almost half a million in the period of 12 months from the year 2015 to 2016. The bakery shops account for almost 25.5% of the weekly sales of bread (Inside FMCG, 2017).

Management Team

Over the last five years the intensifying external competition and increasing input costs are posing serious challenges for the Cakes and pastries industry. The supermarket chains have also been extending their offerings in the fresh food and baked goods market segment. However, there has been a shift in consumer preferences towards more of artisanal bakeries and gourmet foods, which has led to an increase in the number of retail bakeries in the industry.  The retail bakeries rely on innovative products and specialized foods to stimulate demand in the industry (RutaAidis, Saul Estrin, Tomasz Marek Mickiewicz, 2012).

The capital investment for cake and pastry manufacturing is not very high but of a medium level. The medium to large sized bakeries in the industry are more labor intensive as they depend on manual labor to perform majority of the functions and tasks that are involved in production. This leads to higher employment, labor, and wage costs. It is estimated that for every $1 of the capital invested the corresponding labor costs amount to almost $7.20. However, while the initial capital investment in a bakery is relatively high, the subsequent operational costs are much less (Cake and Pastry Manufacturing in Australia, n.d.).

The bakery faces competition from the established brands which deal in breads, frozen cakes, and pastries and also face a competition from the supermarket chains which have entered the baked goods segment as an extension of their fresh food counters. Besides the town has a lot of small specialized bakeries with a loyal customer following. The Eat-Fresh bakery will have to work at not just the products but also on the effective marketing and advertising to attract the customers and will also have to keep the prices low initially affecting the overall profit margin (Nihat Kaya, 2015).

Since the bakery promises to deliver healthy and wholesome baked goods, the quality of the ingredients being used will need to be high making them more expensive, therefore stringent cost controls will have to be applied to maintain the quality at the competitive prices of the finished products. There is also the factor that the consumer trends and tastes in this industry change very fast and people want a novelty every time, therefore we would need to keep adding new and innovative products to the menu to keep it interesting to the consumers (Nihat Kaya, 2015).

To achieve a competitive edge over the rivals our strategy is to target a niche market with superior quality goods. Our plan is to be recognized as a part of the community and an eating joint that promotes healthy living. We plan to keep separate menus for special diet preferences and have them prominently displayed in the bakery (Isidoro Romero, Juan A. Martines-Roman, 2012).

We plan to extend our menus to offer special breakfasts and lunches, and special treats for weekends and holidays. We aim to have the bakery being recognized as favourite destination for regular breakfasts and lunches with our healthy meal options. During the summer months, we plan to establish an outdoor patio for breakfast and lunch where people can sit and enjoy a leisurely meal (Maria Elena Baltazar Herrera, 2016).

Since we plan to offer special diet related baked products on our menu, we plan to work in close co-ordination with the local doctors and health care practitioners. Negotiations are underway to have the doctors and health care workers to sample our menu from time to time and make referrals to the bakery for their patients (Leona Achtenhagen, Leif Melin, Lucia Naldi, 2013).

One of the critical aspects of running a successful bakery is to monitor the cash flows and the cost of operations of the business to maintain good quality at affordable rates. The second important factor for a bakery is to establish a good reputation among its target market consumers and to maintain that reputation by upholding the quality of products and services. Another important element is to continuously update the menu by introducing new products keeping in mind the changing trends in the industry and customer preferences (Donald F. Kuratko, Jeffrey S. Hornsby, & Jeffrey G. Covin, 2014).

References

1. BarNir Anat (2012) Starting technologically innovative ventures: reasons, human capital, and gender", Management Decision, Vol. 50 Issue: 3, pp.399-419. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211216205
2. Andreu Turro, David Urbano, Marta Peris-Ortiz (2014). “Culture and innovation: The moderating effect of cultural values on corporate entrepreneurship”. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, Volume 88, pp. 360-369. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004016251300262X
3. Bernd W. Wirtz, Adriano Pistoia, Sebastian Ullrich, & Vincent Gottel (2015). “Business Models: Origin, Development and future perspectives”. Long Range Planning, Elsevier, Vol. 49, Issue 1, pp. 36-54. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630115000291
4. Cake and Pastry Manufacturing in Australia. (n.d.). Retrieved August 09, 2017, from https://www.ibisworld.com.au/industry-trends/market-research-reports/manufacturing/food-product/cake-pastry-manufacturing.html
5. Donald F. Kuratko, Jeffrey S. Hornsby, & Jeffrey G. Covin (2014). “Diagnosing a firm’s internal environment for corporate entrepreneurship”. Business Horizons, Elsevier, Volume 57, Issue 1, pp. 37-47. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681313001353
6. Donna Kelley (2011). “Sustainable corporate entrepreneurship: Evolving and connecting with the organization”. Business Horizons, Elsevier, Volume 54, Issue 1, pp. 73-83. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0007681310001242
7. Inside FMCG (2017). “Australia’s $4.7 billion bread market”. Retrieved from: https://insidefmcg.com.au/2017/03/28/australias-4-7-billion-bread-market/
8. Isidoro Romero, Juan A. Martines-Roman (2012). “Self-employment and innovation. Exploring the determinants of innovative behaviour in small businesses”. Research Policy, Elsevier, Volume 41, Issue 1, pp. 178-189. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0048733311001326
9. Leona Achtenhagen, Leif Melin, Lucia Naldi (2013). “Dynamics of Business Models-strategizing, critical capabilities and activities for sustained value creation”. Long Range Planning, Elsevier, Vol. 46, Issue 6, pp. 427-442. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630113000198
10. Maria Elena Baltazar Herrera (2016). Journal of Business Research, Volume 69, Issue 5, pp. 1725-1730. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296315004683
11. Nihat Kaya (2015). “Corporate entrepreneurship, generic competitive strategies, and firm performance in small and medium-sized enterprises”. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, Volume 207, pp. 662-668. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042815052696
12. RutaAidis, Saul Estrin, Tomasz Marek Mickiewicz (2012). “Size matters: entrepreneurial entry and government”. Small Business Economics, Springer Publication, Volume 39, Issue 1, pp. 119-139. Retrieved from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11187-010-9299-y
13. SaeedKhanagha, HenkVolberda, &IlanOshri (2017). “Customer co-creation and exploration of emerging technologies: The mediating role of managerial attention and initiatives”. Long Range Planning, Volume 50, Issue 2, pp. 221-242. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630115000953