When 'The Village Store' was taken over by an ex-banker, the shop's in-store bakery became a major focus. And with help from Mono Equipment sales are now rocketing.
Have you ever wondered what picturesque little gems you are passing when pounding down a motorway? Well, Boughton under Blean, just off the end of the M2 near Canterbury, is just such a place.
In fact, it was the charms of village life, and the potential of the local shop, that first attracted Arthur Pearce to move from his banking job in Worthing to take over the village's shop in 1982. Much water, and two complete re-fits of the shop, have since passed under the proverbial bridge. But one thing that Arthur insists has been a major factor in his business strategy since 1986, and has made an essential contribution to the success of the venture, has been the shop's in-store bakery.
"Our first bakery was a combined equipment and product packagedeal supplied by a local company. This did not work very well for us, but I could see the tremendous potential of the bakery, even though the service from the supplying company was not good", says Mr Pearce. "However, the bakery still generated new sales and had a knock-on effect to other areas so that takings throughout the store went up to £4000 a week."
"Three years earlier when I first acquired the shop we were taking only £2000 a week. In 1991 we had our first re-fit and invested in a complete bake-off system from Mono Equipment that included two five-tray ovens. Since then we have never looked back. Within a year our weekly turnover for the whole shop peaked at £11,500.
Recipes for success
According to Mr Pearce there are certain essential recipes for success that need to be followed when running a convenience store. A sudden rise in interest rates can quickly cripple a small business such as nearly happened when Norman Lamont was Chancellor of the Exchequer. But this is nothing compared with the effects of a dramatic downturn in your personal circumstances, when everything goes topsy-turvy".
"Such an event can quickly communicate to your staff and then your customers", recalls Mr Pearce. "After all, Boughton-under-Blean is a village, and it is very hard to keep a break down in your marriage quiet, especially when you both work in the business and the staff are trying hard not to taking sides."
"In a small business the personal touch is vital. It can be a big, daily comfort factor for some of your customers, especially the elderly and those who are alone in their homes for most of the day, so a smile and first name greeting not only makes the business worthwhile in human terms, but is absolutely vital to the financial viability of the business".
"Mr Pearce has learnt this lesson first hand and makes this aspect of a person's character a priority when he has to take on new staff!
"I am constantly reminded that this is a 'convenience' store", continues Arthur. "No one has to come here. My customers probably all do a weekly shop at Tesco in nearby Faversham or Canterbury, but if they run short of anything between times, they will come in here."
"If they receive a helpful, friendly greeting and there is a pleasant aroma wafting from our bakery it's more than likely that they will leave with a purchase or two they were not planning to make - that's the open secret that makes the difference between my business just surviving and a good bottom line on the balance sheet at the end of each financial year".
specified their ovens again. Since re-opening we are taking £600 from the bakery over a six day trading week."
"Soon I will be opening on Sundays and will expect that figure to rise again, with net takings for the whole shop at around £16,000 a week during this summer period".
The new bakery is much more compact with a footprint of just four square metres, which includes a small refrigerated counter. The business no longer does wholesale deliveries so it was felt that this bakery would be large enough, but Mr Pearce now believes that he should have allowed more space and bigger work surfaces for easier overall operation of the bakery. "The new oven is very much easier to operate than the old models", said Angie Martin, who usually runs the bakery.
As some programmes are suitable for more than one product Arthur has tabulated all the product settings on his computer, laminated them in plastic and fixed them to the side of the oven, so there are no mistakes and no waste.
Thursday is the best trading day for the bakery because it is the day the village O.A.P's collect their pensions from the nearby post office. The most popular products are Country Choice's sausage rolls, bacon and cheese savouries, traditional pasties, steak and kidney pies, and the shop's own cheese scones which are made from scratch - according to Angie she can't make them fast enough.
(Reproduced, with permission, from 'British Baker' Bake-off and Foodservice Products Supplement. October 8th, 2004.)
Bakery makeover
Mr Pearce continues. "In June, I spent £80,000 on a second complete re-fit of the store. It included a new ceiling with very expensive, low energy lighting. Outside compressors for our refrigeration units and completely new displays throughout the shop. I also had a new bakery fitted and ordered another 4-tray oven from Mono."
"In the twelve years that we have operated MONO ovens I have only had to call out their engineers on two occasions and that was because we did not have a water-softening unit installed in our water supply, so the steam injectors got clogged up. Since they were installed we have not had any problems with our bakery equipment. So you can see why I