Rising to the Challenge: Artisan wholesale bakery’s $3M move to supply North Queensland

Source: https://www.bdmag.com.au/jean-pierre-artisan-bakery-is-rising-to-the-challenge/

Arriving in Townsville from France in the mid-eighties, Jean-Pierre was working in a local French café when he fell in love with the idea of introducing North Queenslanders to the authentic flavours of French breads and pastries. His talents caught the eye of the new Sheraton Casino, which asked him to be their supplier, and he jumped at the opportunity to open his first pâtisserie boulangerie. By blending his French baking skills to meet the tastes of his Australian customers, Jean-Pierre’s reputation soared, and he began supplying a growing list of cafés and eateries across the region with breads, savouries, pastries and sweet products.

“We were doing retail and wholesale for a long time, then about ten years ago we decided to go wholesale only and concentrate on providing the right products and services to businesses, cafés, restaurants and hotels,” explains Jean-Pierre.

CEO Sylvie Danoy and Founder &
Managing Director, Jean-Pierre Danoy

Jean-Pierre engaged his sister, Sylvie Danoy, as a consultant to improve their digital capabilities, and she has since played a crucial role in strategic operations which led to her appointment as CEO in 2022. With the support of their dedicated team, they continued to improve processes and systems with a focus on product quality and outstanding customer service.

“When I started consulting to the business four years ago, the team used to enter all customer orders manually, so we devised a customised online ordering system to make it easier for our clients to place their orders,” recalls Sylvie.

“The great thing is, they can search the range of artisan breads and look at the product photos. Not many bakeries have actually got photos of all their products online.

“Our clients can search our range of artisan breads, savouries, pastries and sweets, then they can save their short list of products and once they place their order, it just transfers straight into our production and scheduling system.”

As demand grew, they reached maximum production capacity in their Garbutt bakery, which resulted in challenging working conditions for staff and increased risk of errors.

“We’ve got a team of pastry chefs, a team of bakers, day packers, night packers, and delivery drivers and they were operating under challenging conditions because of the limited amount of space to operate from,” explains Sylvie.

“So, we started having a look at the future and what it was going to look like.

“Just as we were going through that process, we came across the Northern Australia Development Program which offered grant funding to develop the infrastructure and the resilience of northern Australia, and so we decided to put an application in for a bigger premises.”

Having secured the grant to fund 50% of the expansion project, the process of securing a premises and designing the fit-out proved to be more challenging and time-consuming than anticipated.

“It took us about a year and a half to find a premises because there’s not many buildings on the market that suit us in size and location, so we didn’t have much choice and had to take whatever we could find. We were pretty desperate at one stage, and we tried to build from scratch, but it was way too expensive,” Jean-Pierre explains.

“It took me at least a good year to research and select all the equipment. There is never the perfect type of equipment, you know, one does this better versus one that does this piece better. Then there was trying to work out the layout and workflow.

“In our original bakery we have one rotating oven and one deck oven; in the new bakery, we have three new rotating ovens from Germany and one deck oven. We’ve done some test bakes already and the quality is just amazing.”

The new 1,000 square metre bakery, located on Titanium Place in the Bohle, is more than twice the size of their original premises, and will predominantly be used for baking bread and logistics, with the pastry team remaining in Garbutt.

“It’s very exciting for our staff, particularly for the baking team because they get to be in the brand-new premises, but also for our pastry team,” adds Sylvie.

“Before, our pastry chefs would come in early in the morning so they could be out in time for when the bakers start their shift and need the ovens to bake the bread to be made to order for next day delivery, so a lot of those pressures are going to be removed because they will not be sharing space with the bakers.”

The additional space will enable the bakery to build capacity and explore new markets, in turn creating a valuable supply chain for the region and job opportunities.

“Over the last few years, we’ve had an increase in demand and challenging conditions, so it’s been about making sure that the business operates, that we get consistency of products that we were able to deliver what we promised,” explains Sylvie.

“So, we are just starting to now introduce new products, and probably the first ones to be introduced will be pastry. But with bread, we always work with our clients, if they are looking for a particular product, we will always try to produce those for them. And sometimes we will keep those to be exclusive to them, and sometimes we also release those new products to the rest of our customers. It is very much demand driven.”

“Par-baking is an area we’re going to try to develop – a lot of the par-bake product comes from down south at the moment, so that will increase the freshness of breads, particularly in regional areas,” adds Jean-Pierre.

“Our projections show that we’ll create about 25 new jobs in the next five to ten years, and that includes being able to provide apprenticeships for bakers and pastry chefs.”

Despite their vision for the future, it is clear that before taking the next step toward growth, they will be applying the same patient approach to solidifying operations to ensure customer satisfaction that has been instrumental in the bakery’s success to date.

“For the next year, we’re going to concentrate on making sure the logistics and operations are working across the two places, and start evaluating new markets,” says Jean-Pierre.

Jean-Pierre Danoy

“We just want to cement our position and our operations, our product range, our relationships with clients, so we can keep on delivering what we’ve promised to our customers.

“This is very important, very important, to have a good foundation, otherwise your business is like a house of cards.

“It’s not only the processes, but also the team, and making sure you have the right people in place. And it’s very challenging, but the people are actually what makes the business – they make it work.”

With all the right ingredients now coming together, Sylvie predicts the business success will continue to rise.

“We have solidified our processes, recently completed a rebrand, and now have the space to continue to grow,” she says.

“I can see the future is very bright with lots of projects in North Queensland, and we will be able to help provide a supply chain to the region and provide products that historically have not be able to be made here.

“It’s a very exciting time and lots of opportunities for our business and staff, I can only see it going upwards for the next 30 years and beyond.”

Main Image: Jean-Pierre Danoy, Founder & Managing Director of Jean-Pierre Artisan Bakery.

Image credits: Shae K Photography

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