₦airaland Forum

ONNYX:
Response to Question 2

There is no 'one strategy fits all' approach. You can design one strategy or you could use a combo.

I will however share one strategy with you. I would start with identifying a premium bread brand and introducing it in that neighborhood. Truth be told, Ikorodu like most other Lagos neighborhoods bearing a lot of residential load has a lot of neighbourhood bakeries with most of them struggling so hard to compete that variety and quality has been thrown out of the window. They now just now mix dough that fills the stomach without recourse to the variables of taste and texture. My goal would then be to service that segment the society that pays a premium to get higher quality bread. you will be amazed that people take bread from Ilupeju and distribute at Iyan Oba in Alimosho local government area while some people load thousands of loaves from Iba and sell in Awoyaya twice weekly.

Another option would be to service the lower cadre segment of the society who have a limited budget. This involves a lot of volume with very little margin per unit but with volumes that more than make up for the small margins. A case in point here is a particular bread brand that has a 100.00 (now 120.00) product that sells like crazy. That product is everywhere; V.I, Obalende, Ikeja, Agege, but I didnt see it in Ikorodu. Another very serious product is made i Ibadan and ships nationwide. Its inarguably the king of the market.

Thanks for your response, I agree with your view, sir. I have visited a few brands around, bought their loaves of bread but I didn't like the taste. Can you recommend any good brand I can start with here?

[quote author=ONNYX post=76731739]Today, I wish to advise those who intend to go into bakery ownership in the long term.

Please understand that this is my perspective and drawn from my observations in the industry.

If you have an interest in owning a bakery in the future I strongly suggest that to make it easy for you consider the following steps.

Avoid a theoretical Consultant. In the majority of cases a consultant is a failed baker. The best consultants are usually the ones who are currently running a profitable bakery; this is an index for identifying who you should hire as your bakery set-up Guide. Alternatively, get a job in a bakery no matter how lowly the position and salary are and then observe keenly and with resolute exactitude how the breading process works. Ensure that you LEARN and UNDERSTAND the various stages that constitute the process, raw materials, recipe, and very importantly also play around with the raw materials and configuration.

If you spend one year in the job and also draw a lot of theoretical back-up from the Internet especially Youtube videos you should be ready to launch out on your own.

Another option is to adopt the business angle. A lot of bakeries fail because they have no clue whatsoever about how bread is marketed. They bake the bread and then are at a total loss as regards how to get it to the consumer. A very good option for the business-minded entrepreneur would be for him to identify a new bakery that has appealing products, register as a distributor and start selling bread.

Two things will benefit him from this angle;

1. He will learn the ropes of bread distribution.

2. He will build a robust database of customers who will constitute his initial customers when he sets up shop.

Feel free to drop your questions here and I will consider it an honor to attend it. You must however understand that it could take some time before I respond. I am very busy at the moment especially with having new products coming up. [

Educative.

Pls, can you mentor me on how to start the bread production business from home? I will like to start on a small scale.

Thanks

ONNYX:
Please read the quoted text which appears earlier on this thread.

So the very first step in starting as a bread merchant is to conduct a comprehensive survey of the locality to unveil the fastest-selling bread size/type in that market.

This could be attained using several measures but the one that I would advise is through striking some chord with the retailer such that he is open to provide this information for you insincere terms.

The target here should be the following;

1. Mallam/Aboki Gatehouse shops,

2. The regular provisions shops .......

and of course

3. The smaller to medium-sized supermarkets in your neighborhood .

The result of this survey is what will help you in deciding objectively where to start from and what type of bread to start with.

Comments and questions please before we move to Step Two.

Thanks for sharing this insightful write-up. But I have few questions based on the response I'm getting from the market now.


1. on distributorship, how can one adopt this strategy in Ikorodu? Because a lot of retailers already have bakers that supply them daily (abokis, people frying cake beans, and food sellers, and mini-supermarket).

2. Some of the retailers already have discounts from the bakers. So what is the best strategy to penetrate the market now as a distributor?

3. I see potential in distributorship based on your explanation on naira land(already have a plan of selling 1000pcs per day)but after discussing with few retailers it seems a bit difficult to implement in reality considering the profit margin.

Is this strategy still applicable at present it seems many people are already using it?

I look forward to seeing your response.