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From banking to baking
Gauri Nafrey looks back on the first five years of her bakery business in west London.
Bridge Baker is our award-winning neighbourhood bakery in Fulham, west London. From what once was an estate agent’s office and garage, just a short walk from Wandsworth Bridge, we now serve Real Bread, pastries, cakes, brunch, pizzas and more.
Bakery beginnings
I started the business as I loved the idea of a local, neighbourhood bakery. I have no professional baking qualifications but had been making my own sourdough and other bread for more than 15 years before I started Bridge Baker. As an ex-banker, I was able to use my management and financial skills to set up a business that would be viable. That’s part of the reason that we make such a large range of products on site. In a place like London, it’s very hard for a business to survive by focusing on just a few products, unless it’s in a location where it can rely on plenty of passing customers and a high volume of sales.
I took the plunge when I came across an estate agent’s office for sale in the neighbourhood close to where I live and couldn’t help but think that it would make a great location for a bakery café. The adjoining garage provided the perfect space for a largish bakehouse / kitchen and, after a massive renovation, we opened in June 2019.
How we roll
Beyond bread, we have a brunch menu and a deli counter with pies, sandwiches, quiches and salads. Our food philosophy is to ‘think global, eat local’, from moreish kouign-amann to crusty baguettes to perfect chocolate éclairs.
Everything we sell is made on site from scratch. Our sourdough bread is slow-fermented and contains just flour, water and salt. Our additive-free pastries are freshly-made with pure butter, and we even make our own jams in small batches. At the heart of what we do are our bakers, who start at 11pm and work through the night to ensure our freshly-made bread is ready for our customers when we open at seven every morning.
The pandemic and beyond
Covid presented both challenges and opportunities. It was during the first lockdown in 2020 that we started doing takeaway pizzas to make up for the lost income from dine-in customers. Using our knowledge of breadmaking and using our stone hearth oven, our pizza bases are slow-fermented, light and airy. They proved to be so popular that we’ve kept them on our menu ever since.
As with many small bakeries, one of our biggest challenges is staffing. We try our best to give our team members a great, supportive working environment and do our best to retain them! Post-Brexit, however, it’s become very difficult to find skilled bakers and chefs, especially since our bakers work overnight – it’s one of the hardest jobs in the business to recruit for. The cost-of-living crisis and recent sharp increase in the minimum wage have both contributed extra financial pressure on the business.
It’s very hard to compete with venture-capital funded, commercial bakery chains like GAIL’s. Their business models and cost structures are very different to ours, and customers are willing to pay more for a well-marketed brand. That sort of company makes products in a central production unit (a factory) and transports them to stores many miles away, so the word ‘artisan’ is used very loosely, in my view.
Signs of success
We turned five in June 2024 and it’s been an exciting half decade. We opened our second store in 2023 and so benefit from some economy of scale – but without compromising our processes, values or quality. We also have a thriving wholesale side to the business, supplying Real Bread, viennoisserie and other breakfast pastries to high-end restaurants and cafés. We offer a range of classes in making bread and pastry. We hope that when customers see our bakehouse and kitchen during a class, they understand why we are in a different league.
We have become a key part of our neighbourhood, with a slew of loyal, local customers. As well as the support of our community, we have also won numerous awards. These include ‘Best Place to Eat’ and ‘Best Independent Business on the High Street’ in Hammersmith & Fulham Council’s Brilliant Business Awards 2019, and a ‘Neighbourhood Fave’ award from Nextdoor in 2023. We also Great Taste Awards for products in 2022 and 2023.
The future
Looking ahead, I am not getting any younger and I need to think of a way for the business to have longevity and also be resilient if I want to take a step back and do less! My advice to anyone looking at starting such a business would be that management skills and financial independence are as important as a passion for baking and good food. Many people who set up a business because they love to bake or cook, then get disappointed as its financial success depends on so many other factors.
Originally published in True Loaf magazine issue 59, July 2024.
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Published Monday 16 September 2024
Real Bread Campaign: The Real Bread Campaign finds and shares ways to make bread better for us, better for our communities and better for the planet. Whether your interest is local food, community-focussed small enterprises, honest labelling, therapeutic baking, or simply tasty toast, everyone is invited to become a Campaign supporter.
