India is a country of many religions but none bigger than cricket and food. And at some point in our lives we have all wished, desired and dreamt of running a cafe business. The joy of feeding people, being praised for our taste and choice of food, fun and glamour of the food business makes it a very attractive business option for many, but only few take the plunge. And rightly so because it is estimated that 94% of new food businesses shut down before turning a profit.

“Bakery is actually growing faster than any food business in India as of today. The GDP is growing faster than the GDP of the country. So that is something to really think about. There are entrepreneurs in every city, every corner who wants to start a cafe or a bakery,” shared Chef Gauri Varma of Confect and G’s Patisserie.

There’s no denying the fact that everything begins with breads and ends a meal with something sweet as a dessert. Bakery business has witnessed some fantastic success, the Covid has given so many stories to the bakery business and how suddenly there is so much value finally for the sector that make sure that every dessert, and every celebration is a success. 

“It took a lot of time to come to what we see today. We started studying about the possibility of creating an authentic French bakery and pastry operation in India, 15 years earlier when people hardly understood the importance of a bakery café,” pointed Kazem Samandari, Chairman, L’opera who believed that Indians love discounts, reducing the prices cheap, but they also understand what real quality and real product is. He also mentioned that there would be only few who would say that the product is expensive but mostly people who knew the product they never challenged the price. 

“Our challenge was how to convince more people to come inside. We never paid for any publicity. We have never, never paid and grow on our website. We said we concentrate on the quality of our product. And we realize on the word of mouth, we thought people, they come and talk. And Today, if you go and make a survey over 90% or even more of our daily customers, they are repeat customers,” added Samandari.

The bakery products have long been basic food products for human nutrition. The convenience, accessibility and nutrition profile associated with them are the major factors of their sustenance in the modern market. Their significance as a major portion of diet has been prevalent in middle to lower income group countries. Bread has been a staple diet of many local cuisines worldwide and has shown a remarkable growth even during the period of global economic crisis.

“If you talk about diversity, I think a lot of people think that bakery is very limited. I can go back to my training time and a lot of my peers were not interested in taking Bakery as their subject forward because they always thought that if you take something like a bakery then you cannot be an executive chef. So, their aim and ambition was to become an executive chef. Mine was a little different. Mine was to become an entrepreneur and I always, always had this one. I had confidence in Bakery and I knew how versatile, diverse it is,” mentioned Gaurav Wadhwa of Theos that is one of the most celebrated bakery in NCR.

Categories are evolving at a brisk pace in the market for the middle and lower-income segments. With their rising economic status, these consumers are shifting from need- to want-based products. The global bakery product market is highly fragmented, particularly with the significant presence of numerous global and regional players. The market share analysis does not account for revenue from artisan bakeries, but the revenue for retail channels. The strategy for expansion and partnership agreement has been the crucial strategy.

“When I talk about my brand which is managed by my wife; Paris my love, we were very clear from the beginning that we want to cater to a clientele who understands our product, is well exposed, well-traveled. If there's somebody who doesn't understand it, we educate them. We want to to be the ambassador of patisserie. That's, the way we want to grow. We don't want 25 stores. We are not very money hungry. We want probably five stores in the country, maybe one in Dubai, Sri Lanka each. And, we are happy with that,” added chef Sahil Mehta of Paris My Love. 

                                                                                                                                                           Transcribed by: Deeksha Tiwari