Of Bread, Butter... And Success

ADITI HANDA, CO-FOUNDER and Head, The Baker’s Dozen (TBD) started her venture in 2012. An establishment of artisanal bread with­out preservatives, The Baker’s Dozen has outlets in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune and Mumbai.

TBD, which moved its headquarters to Ahmedabad in 2019, has several innovations to its credit including establishing one of India’s first Covid and similar pandemic ready 25,000 sq. ft baking factory, introducing first-of-its-kind hygienic airtight packaging, preservative-free baking and 100 per cent whole-wheat products. “These have helped us provide our customers with quality that is a class apart,” says Handa.

Elaborating about the uniqueness of her venture, Handa says, “We were amongst the first few artisan bakeries that offered preservative-free products, especially sourdough bread and people have loved us ever since. Our continued focus on healthy, high quality, hygienic products has helped make our brand as the first choice across major cities in India.”

Unique Packaging

The Baker’s Dozen uses TBD Fresh Seal packaging that has been adapted from a German technology that prevents oxygen transfer from the environment to the product.

“The packaging helps to prevent the outer atmosphere and air from entering the product thereby making it safe and secure for the custom­ers to consume. Also, without oxygen microbial growth is retarded and hence shelf life is enhanced. It is required today since more and more customers are demanding hygienically-made products that are free from preservatives and have a longer shelf life,” explains Handa.

Her venture has fared well over the last year despite the massive dis­ruption caused by Covid-19. According to Handa, TBD saw an impres­sive 300 per cent growth in sales over the last year.

“We are now aggressively pressing the growth pedal. We recently announced our plans for countrywide expansion whereby we will be launching across 15 cities by the end of 2021. We aim to majorly shift our channels from B2C to D2C, where we can have direct access to our customers and can develop close relationship with them.”

Expansion Plans

As part of its expansion strat­egy, the company plans to invest a total of Rs 60 million, half of which will be utilised for open­ing 50 branded and delivery-only outlets and the remaining towards capacity expansion via enhancements within the fac­tory, equipment and in warehous­ing.

“We also aim to introduce an additional 15-20 products by the end of 2021, all of which will be based on what the consumer has guided us to create during this lockdown period. We are also aim­ing to launch more flavours of accompaniments such as butters and jams which can be perfectly paired with our newer breads and cakes,” informs Handa.

Under her dynamic leadership, TBD now aims to be a major brand across all major cities and towns in India by 2024, providing our sour­dough bread to every Indian household. Handa is also looking to expand internationally across the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.

Highlighting the social impact that her venture is creating, Hands says, “When we develop our prod­ucts, we do not look for any imported ingredients. It took us time to develop a good sourdough with Indian flour but we worked on it extensively. Our focus on local sourcing has helped us develop a great supply chain within India long before #vocal­forlocal became a call to action. “

“Also, we are a women-centric company -- one of the founders, many in the top management team and a significant proportion of our workforce are women. Our factory also employs more than 50 per cent women helping the local villages become more sustainable,” she says with pride.