Opening a patiserie /bakery

florin0

Good afternoon,

I have £25k and i'm thinking of opening a patisserie/bakery.

My cousin has a small patisserie in Romania and makes an average of £3000 profit monthly, the price for a croissants is around 30p, a bagle 5p and stuff like that, he does sell like 5-10 at a time though.

I can get one of his staff to come and show me how to make all the stuff that he does back home.

Ideally I would like to set up outside a tube station (probably impossible).

In the beginning it will be just me & my girlfriend working, if the business goes well i will hire someone else.

Where do I start?

lincroft1710

Just because your cousin makes £3K a month in Romania, doesn't mean you can make a similar amount in Britain. You can't just "set up outside a tube station". £25K is nowhere near enough to open such a business in London.

Finally, Romanian pastries might not be that popular.

InsideInsurance

Business plan

You need to do the financials like cost out the setup costs, running costs, unit costs, margins etc.

You also need to look at things like why would someone come to you -v- an established brand like Greggs? Greggs are going to have economies of scales that you wont and so unless you're willing to have thin margins then you arent going to be able to compete on price.

On the basis you normally need to pay 6 months rent in advance on a business lease someone on another forum estimated the cost of setting up a new artisan bakery at £100,000 to £200,000 depending on how high end and how prime the location. Looking at their numbers none of them look stupidly high.

m4rc

What a positive start!

I think you know it won't be easy or that simple, and the reality is it may cost a lot more, but do your homework and you might find its possible. Being a little blunt and honest I think you need to do some proper research rather than asking 'where do I start' - so go on business forums, look at what you may need and start working out how realistic it is. I would think you will need a few months of hard research before you make any decisions, that's a lot of work but it's a huge commitment, so if you don't have the energy to do your homework it's probably not going to work out so well for you.

Starting a business is hard work, you need to research your market, suppliers, the law and legislation, equipment costs, insurances, and that's before you've started on the property search and buying equipment.

From experience I think you will find the equipment alone would cost more than £25k, you may get secondhand stuff within budget but you also need to fit out the unit.

Do your homework and ask specific questions once you have exhausted other avenues of research.

Best of luck

superflygal

If you cousin's making so much money in Romania, why not consider going into business over there? Income seems guaranteed from what you're saying. I agree that Romanian pastries may not be very desirable here so would be a gamble. Is anyone else selling Romanian delicacies sucessfully in London?

£25k is nowhere near enough for london. £250k is nearer what you would need. Unfortunately the cost of living here is astronomical compared to Eastern Europe.

DKLS

If he is doing 3k a month net in Romania, he is doing pretty well, I assume thats somewhere like Timisoara or Bucharest, perhaps try and see if you could pick up any B2B customers to start with, supplying hotels and cafes with pastries over here and build from there, 25k won't go for for a shop in central london.

motorguy

florin0 wrote: »

Good afternoon,

I have £25k and i'm thinking of opening a patisserie/bakery.

My cousin has a small patisserie in Romania and makes an average of £3000 profit monthly, the price for a croissants is around 30p, a bagle 5p and stuff like that, he does sell like 5-10 at a time though.

I can get one of his staff to come and show me how to make all the stuff that he does back home.

Ideally I would like to set up outside a tube station (probably impossible).

In the beginning it will be just me & my girlfriend working, if the business goes well i will hire someone else.

Where do I start?

As has been said, your theory that because your cousin is running a romanian pastry bakery successfully in romania, you can run a successful one in central london is deeply flawed. Off the top of my head :-

• he is an experienced baker, you are not.
• Having someone show you how to bake something doesnt not make you a baker.
• His material costs are likely to be much lower than yours
• His startup costs are likely to be much lower than yours
• He is selling Romanian pastries in Romania. You would be selling Romanian pastries in london. There may not be a market for them.
• His rent will be much lower than yours
• He may not face the level of competition you would have in london
• His staffing costs are lower
• His rates will be lower
• £25,000 will take you nowhere in startup costs in london

andygb

florin0 wrote: »

I can get one of his staff to come and show me how to make all the stuff that he does back home.

Ideally I would like to set up outside a tube station (probably impossible).

In the beginning it will be just me & my girlfriend working, if the business goes well i will hire someone else.

Where do I start?

First of all, I think that you have a good attitude to business, but please look at the two areas which I have highlighted.
I have a good few years experience in baking, and I can tell you that the early days were fraught with mistakes, where I just did not have the experience to quickly correct mistakes.
If you have no experience of baking, then I would have to say that your first mistakes in business could be your last.
The second point is your ideal choice of location - have you researched costs, rental, equipment, because as others have said £25K in London will not buy you anything.

Mistral001

florin0 wrote: »

I can get one of his staff to come and show me how to make all the stuff that he does back home.

Having a resource like that is priceless. You have a very generous cousin.