A Romanian invested EUR 350,000 in a new bakery – pastry shop & restaurant concept and plans to expand it via franchise throughout the world in a few years, Romania-Insider.com has learned. Mihaela Irimia created the Bread & Spices boulengerie concept and opened the shop in the Pipera area in Northern Bucharest earlier this year, in spring. At the ground floor of an office building on Pipera boulevard, the shop & restaurant already has its own clientele, many of whom are foreigners. Foreigners also work on making the products that are sold in the restaurant – a third of the 20 staff are foreigners.

Irimia had worked for several years in marketing and had already invested in another small coffee shop & restaurant chain in Northern Bucharest, but wanted to do something different this time. On some 500 sqm, including the sales and production area, Bread & Spices sell bread specialties, cakes, and pastry products of their own creation, and all made in-house. The offer is a combination of French, English and Romanian products with a twist.

About 80% of the clients are foreigners, who usually buy varied products, whereas Romanians are more conservative. Bread & Spices welcome about 250 clients a day, many of whom are already regulars, and come from all over Bucharest to buy the bread with rye, a house specialty.

The baker is French, and Mihaela Irimia had to fly him in from France: “For three months, we didn’t get any CVs when we tried to fill in the baker position. There are no longer schools for such specialties, and young people are no longer interested in learning the craft,” says the owner. Two other colleagues who work as confectioners are former multinational employees who wanted to change something in their lives.

But what’s harder to change is the taste of Romanian consumers, who are reluctant to try something new – most popular among Romanians are still the eclaires with different twists, the chocolate mousse and the croissant.

So far, the business has been growing for this one location in Pipera – which, Irimia says, will be the only one before moving to the franchise model. Confectionery brings about 30% of its revenues, bakery, a similar ratio, then come pastry products with 20%, and the rest is covered by the restaurant - bistro business. Bread & Spices also serves breakfast and started serving lunch too a month ago.

An unexpected side of the business was the growth coming from contracts with retailers, such as hotels, restaurants, even multinationals, and a football team that buy their bread from the Bread & Spices shop, which deliver these products based on long-term contracts. Such contract already bring 10% of the business, and going up, says Irimia.

Such a boulangerie - patisserie can make some EUR 400,000 a year in Romania, and even more, depending on how long it has been on the market. Four players share the Bucharest market so far, and the annual sales growth of such a unit can reach 30%.  Irimia invested EUR 350,000 in this business, “but we can’t speak about profit now, only after a year,” she says.

For Bread & Spices, franchise will be the next step in business expansion, and requests have already been received from UK and even from Dubai. Once franchising starts, the unit in Pipera neighborhood of Bucharest will become a showroom and the central point of growth. "Think Big!" the owner concludes.

More about Bread & Spices on CityCompass.ro.

Corina Chirileasa, corina@romania-insider.com

(photos by Andrei Chirileasa for Romania-Insider.com)