| 3 Dough Bakery T T Russell Fredric Busy Wellington bakery on the rise Baking up a storm: Tim and Mia Tracey of Dough Bakery. REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT Earning a crust can be challenging for a business, but a rapidly expanding Wellington bakery company has proven itself a rising star in this year’s Deloitte Fast 50 regional awards. Owned by Tim and Mia Tracey, Dough Bakery was recognised in October in the Fast 50 as the fastest-growing retail and consumer products business for Wellington and the Lower North Island. A true ‘humble beginnings’ story, Dough Bakery is an offshoot of Pickle & Pie, which the couple started in Wellington’s central business district seven years ago. Today Tim, a qualified chef, and Mia, who has experience in marketing, head a business that employs 50 to 60 staff and has five retail outlets in addition to a wholesale operation, all supported by a 24-hour-a-day central-production kitchen in Upper Hut. “We’ve been through all the challenges of Wellington hospitality,” Mia says. Dough Bakery was established four years ago, and now has five outlets, of which two are in Upper Hutt – the location of the first bakery that operates as a sit-down/takeaway café, two in central Wellington, and one in Ngaio. Apart from the Upper Hutt bakery/café, the bakeries are all takeaway outlets, which is “where the business model is heading,” Mia says. “The production kitchen also supplies other restaurants, cafes, and hotels. We’ve got about 20 wholesale customers, as well as baking for some other businesses, one being a nationwide pizza chain.” As well as overseeing the overall operations, Mia says she and Tim are also focused on external factors, and are always trying to grow the business. “We set the standards, I guess, and then try and look elsewhere for constant growth. We have a general manager and key team members who help to keep the day-to day things moving.” Since its inception, the growth of the business has been considerable, but rather than this growth being organic, Tim and Mia have sought to expand based on a deliberate strategy with the guidance of Deloitte, which has been their accountant for most of their journey. Part of this strategy is to produce their own bread and to not put all their eggs all in one basket, Mia says. “We knew that we had to create scale to make a profitable business and so we worked with Deloitte with what we call a hub-and-spoke model, where we’ve got one central production kitchen and we deliver to various locations.” Although Tim and Mia are driving the vision, they acknowledge they would be nowhere without their staff, and they see themselves as being on a journey together with them. “We have carefully selected our people and we are very passionate about growing careers in hospitality, because for so long it’s had a really negative perception, so we have no qualms about bringing people in and creating opportunities for them. “In some of the team that we do have, we’ve had them for five or six years now. We like to keep them busy and find them jobs that will create growth.” Mia describes Dough Bakery’s products as artisan and top-notch, including its immensely popular natural sourdough bread range with gluten-free loaves ironically being the most popular, while its doughnuts are also a firm favourite with customers.
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