Planned (and baked) to perfection

Once there was a baker, a chef and a barista who all dreamed of opening a standout destination bakery for Auckland’s North Shore community. Turns out Rollers Bakery produced exactly the right recipe for start-up success.

Walk into Rollers Bakery in Northcote mid-morning or lunchtime and you’ll immediately see why it has become one of the destination bakeries to die for on the Shore. It’s a busy place.

Rollers Bakery has only been going eight months, but even its three founders are surprised by the support they’ve received from the community. It has a lot to do with the ‘to-die-for’ baked goods all made on the premises.

Quick commercial success has also been a result of the close bond between the owners – Laurence Woodhouse, Tamara Tait and Judah McDonald – as well as the skills they came with.

Laurence has been baking since he left school, including a nine-year stint in London where he ran a small factory producing sourdough and pastries.

Judah has been a chef since high school and admits that creating food for other people and entertaining has always come naturally.

“I’ve been lucky enough to work alongside some really great chefs and business owners who’ve inspired me, sparked new creativity and just been good role models and friends,” he says.

Tamara, Judah’s partner, has 14 years’ experience as a barista and café manager and feels fortunate to have worked for a couple of inspirational owner-operators.

“I also had an amazing nine months working for Ozone Coffee Roasters who have officially become family and taught me so much in such a short amount of time,” she says.

With all that combined experience, the trio decided it was high time to launch out together.

“We used to catch up over a beer and talk about our previous jobs and chat about ideas,” recalls Tamara. “It all seemed to fall into place with the three of us each specialising in a different area of hospo. It meant we were able to start up and run with all aspects of the bakery covered.”

Covid forced people to adapt to a new way of living and it changed hospitality dramatically, she believes. “So, the way we were able to set up Rollers Bakery has future-proofed us – providing baked goods and ready-to-eat food for people on the go or people working from home.”

Being takeaway-only also means Rollers Bakery is able to run on limited staff, she says.

Challenges from the get-go

It’s vital to conduct strong research prior to launching a business – there’s a lot riding on the outcome. Tamara says the industry experience the three of them brought to the table meant they had a fair idea what the competition was up to, and what prices they were charging.

“We’ve also lived in the area for most of our lives so we were well aware that it lacked good quality baked goods and coffee,” she says.

“We collected aesthetic inspiration online from overseas bakeries and cafés over a long period of time and slowly worked our way through everything until we were happy with the vibe we wanted to bring to our bakery.

“All three of us are first-time business owners so we just learnt as we went,” she admits. “There is always something new to think about.”

Getting access to the business premises was the first big hurdle, thanks to covid. “There was another lockdown as soon as we got the keys, which delayed the renovations by about two months,” recalls Tamara. “But in a way that gave us more time to really get into the business planning and start organising equipment before we could begin doing anything physically.

“Once we got going everything took longer than planned due to covid and various shipping delays. So, our original opening date was pushed back about a month.”

Long days, pleasant surprises

There have been long days and plenty of sleep deprivation since launching the business, but the founders are pleased that they haven’t come up against too many hurdles.

They were also pleasantly surprised at their popularity right from day one. Word about their delicious products spread very fast, which quickly necessitated the hiring of more staff to keep up with demand.

“Rollers Bakery has only been going eight months, but even its three founders are surprised by the support they’ve received from the community.”

“The community has shown so much support and we have quite an amazing following on social media already,” says a delighted Tamara.

With the benefit of hindsight, she admits that she could have familiarised herself more on the accounting and management aspects of the business.

“None of us had any background in that so we’ve been learning as we go with help from some friends. It felt a bit overwhelming trying to learn all the ins and outs of accounting while running the business at the same time.”

What’s next?

The pace of growth in the business has been a lot faster than expected, but the three owners agree that it’s been a rewarding ride so far. With all their systems in place and running well, they now have the confidence to start trying new things and producing more product.

For now, they’re just happy keeping up with customer demand, which is still growing weekly thanks to the power of social media and good old-fashioned word of mouth.

But once they reach a suitable comfort level, they’ll consider moving Rollers Bakery on to greater heights.

“The goal for us is to be able to step back off the tools and have a few days off,” says Tamara. “We aren’t looking to franchise or do wholesale at this point. We want to keep it simple; we are doing this for ourselves and for the lifestyle.

“We are passionate about what we do and want to be successful, but becoming too big for ourselves isn’t what we are about.”

Laurence, Tamara and Judah have some simple advice for anyone else considering a new retail business too. Primarily, be prepared for long hours and a lot of multi-tasking.

“And make sure you have a good team behind you,” says Tamara.

“We couldn’t have done any of this without each other.”

Story by editor Glenn Baker.