00:00Yeah, so my name's Jay. I'm the front of house manager here at Bread Addiction.
00:03I'm in control of running everything front of house, funny enough.
00:06We've been here 11 years now. I've only been here for about one year.
00:11I'm the newest member of the team.
00:13But yeah, we're very keen on our bread and our gluten.
00:17As we can see, we're all addicted to it.
00:19It's very much a part of all of our lives now.
00:22So it was owned by our two owners that live in the Czech Republic, Nicky and Laddy.
00:26They did it 11 years ago. They have no previous experience in baking or in running a bakery or a business within hospitality.
00:34So they kind of went very much approached it blindly and have learned through their own trial and error progressing throughout the years.
00:40And I think that's what kind of makes them so special to be here 11 years later is that authenticity of kind of learning from your own mistakes
00:46and not kind of going at something too professionally and restricting yourself from naturally kind of like learning what your customers want
00:53and the direction that you should take things.
00:55So it's been really interesting kind of seeing their photos that they've been sharing with us the past couple of weeks of where they started
01:01and like the first amount of sales that they had compared to what we're doing now is it's not even a fraction of it.
01:07Like I think they managed to the first week.
01:10It was like they sold, I think their first day, I think it was like 10 cinnamon rolls or something like that on top of other things.
01:15But now we're making like over 200 cinnamon rolls for a Saturday.
01:19Oh wow.
01:19Yeah, yeah, yeah. Insane numbers. Insane.
01:22So in that way, so what is it about bread edition that makes it different from say your traditional bakery?
01:28Well, the thing is the fact that it is a traditional bakery.
01:31I mean, we're a sourdough bakery rather than just focusing on everyday like yeast, yeast bread, yeast baked bread.
01:38So that in itself is a very special element.
01:41It's a three-day process of fermentations to really get the bread.
01:45It's a bit of a healthier option.
01:46And it's also just not really, when they started doing it, sourdough wasn't really a thing in England.
01:51It was mainly seen in other European countries.
01:53So I think they wanted to bring some of their culture over to England and see some of the breads that they were missing from back home.
01:58Sourdough is more commonly seen across European countries.
02:03It's not really like the bread that we have over here, which is a lot softer.
02:06I mean, it's a lot... God knows what's in it.
02:08You don't really know. It's made in a factory.
02:10But yeah, this is a lot more healthier for you because of the fermentation process in it.
02:15It's easier for your gut.
02:17And I think they just wanted to see a little bit more of the nicer breads that they were used to.
02:21And it's definitely changed my opinion on bread.
02:22I don't use the hate crust. I used to cut it off.
02:24Now, to me, it's the best bit.
02:26And I think as well, it's just that it's quite interesting seeing how people are...
02:30As we progress in the future, things like Gregg's and quite big chains coming in affecting the way that kind of the bakery operates.
02:39Not many bakeries operate the way that we do anymore.
02:41We're working all throughout the night.
02:43Our bakers come in as early as 2 o'clock in the morning to start baking, start making the breads.
02:47And obviously, then we sell all of our products for the day, and that's that.
02:50Whereas, obviously, places like Gregg's can constantly just churn up more and more because it's all being made at a factory miles away that they've never seen the location of themselves.
02:58Like, where we can source everything.
02:59We know where our flour comes from.
03:00We know where our butter comes from.
03:01And it's all made in sight by our team, which is great.
03:04So we had our 11th birthday, and we celebrated by handing out 111 free cinnamon rolls to anyone who bought a coffee, one pair of coffee.
03:13They went in about an hour and a half in the morning.
03:17We had a line for the moment we opened, and then it was just gone.
03:20I think what's quite interesting is, even though we've been here for 11 years, I think the company is still quite small.
03:25We're quite a well-known name within Portsmouth now, I'd like to say.
03:29But I think we can still push that further.
03:33Being known outside of Portsmouth would be great to have increased our wholesale, to be able to supply to a lot more restaurants and businesses within Southsea and Portsmouth would be absolutely incredible.
03:45And just to keep seeing this business grow, honestly, it's just fascinating to watch how two people with a small idea, no experience, have been able to just build this empire that's continuously growing.
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