WHILE stores are closing across the UK, an enterprising baker has provided fresh proof there is still plenty of potential on the shopping streets of Scotland.

Name:

Jeni Hardie.

Age:

47.

What is your business called?

Bad Girl Bakery Ltd.

Where is it based?

Muir of Ord, Highlands.

What does it produce, what services does it offer?

We specialise in small batch, hand-made cake. These include layer cakes, cupcakes tray bakes and biscuits, baked fresh every day for our shop and thousands of portions every month for our wholesale customers.

We focus on cakes and bakes you might not see in a traditional bakery with interesting flavour combinations and textures, such as raspberry and white chocolate layer cakes.

The main part of our business is wholesaling fresh, baked to order cakes to customers who want high quality, non-prepackaged, short shelf life cake. Everything is done by hand, in small batches using high quality ingredients, but we do it in high volumes.

To whom does it sell?

We have a café and cake shop in Muir of Ord, and wholesale to high quality, high profile national organisations such as National Trust for Scotland, Scottish Canals and the Caledonian Sleeper.

What is its turnover?

Last year, our turnover went up by over 500% to reach £350,000. This year, given the wholesale contracts we have in place, the turnover has doubled.

How many employees?

16.

When was it formed?

Incorporated in May 2015, but trading in current form started in February 2017.

Why did you take the plunge?

The business started as a way to earn some money part time while caring for our young son, but within a year it had become a full time job for me.

It continued to grow very quickly, employing firstly my husband, Douglas, part time, and then more and more people.

Now it’s run by me and Douglas, in a partnership that works really well for us. My focus is the cake, the menus, the flavours, the ingredients and running the bakery. Douglas’ focus is more the business side of things. That way we both play to our strengths and it’s working - 70 odd hours a week working next to each other is still so much fun.

What were you doing before you took the plunge?

My background is in marketing and I worked for the BBC, Scottish Opera, DCA and Dundee Rep before I left that and started baking. I managed a group of boutique bakeries (Bibi’s), before being lured to the Highlands by Douglas.

How did you raise the start-up funding?

We have grown in stages, and have financed our growth with a combination of cash flow, family loans, and small loans from RBS and Business Gateway.

What was your biggest break?

While working from small premises at home, we were approached by the Caledonian Sleeper to provide breakfast muffins for their first class passengers. We assumed we would be too small for them to deal with, but they were incredibly patient while we scaled up to meet their numbers. This was a game changer for us, and gave us the confidence to expand and take on larger premises. With the larger capacity, we were in a position to offer NTS the quantity and the quality of cake that they were looking for when they approached us.

What was your worst moment?

The first week that we opened the café and cake shop was both wonderful and horrific. Muir of Ord had been without a café or meeting place for years. When we opened, there were queues down the street to get in! We’d spent so long worrying that no one would come, we didn’t give any thought to being busy! We planned for low numbers, we had strategies for when the café was empty, but we hadn’t planned on every seat being filled all day. After the first few days of frantic activity and 16-hour days, I remember sitting down with Toni (a friend and colleague) wondering what on earth we had done! We realised the premises were not going to be big enough and within two months had signed the lease on the vacant shop unit next door, and covered it into the bakery we needed.

What do you most enjoy about running the business?

I love the early morning shift, when it is quiet and calm, just me, the ovens and a coffee machine. It’s the best time of the day, filling the ovens with cake that will be cooled and finished and out on the shelves that morning.

I’m not interested in the science of baking particularly, though a good bake makes me happy. I’m more interested in flavour and textures and driven by quality and freshness.

What do you least enjoy?

I love my job and still can’t quite believe I get to bake cakes and people give me money for them, but I guess sometimes it’s incredibly overwhelming. We’ve grown so much in the last year we spend a lot of time trying to keep up! Plans change so quickly as we are growing so fast that we’ve had to learn to adapt, take chances and trust our gut instincts. To go from being a sole trader to being responsible for 16 people was daunting but totally worth the responsibility. We have a fantastic team with incredible skills and I get huge waves of joy when I look up and see the bakery full of people, laughing, chatting and working.

What are your ambitions for the firm?

We’ve developed a really interesting business model, with a cafe, cake shop and wholesale bakery. We are able to compete in the wholesale cake market by offering something different: small batch, hand made cakes but in large volumes. We’d love to replicate this and are currently looking for premises in other towns.

What are your top five priorities?

Quality.

Developing the business.

The team. Recruitment in the Highlands has its challenges so we made the decision to employ people based on more than just their experience. Enthusiasm, passion for baking and customer service is the priority and we train them to bake in our style, with our focus on quality and flavour.

Customer service.

Product development: We work with seasonal produce and flavours to develop a changing cake menu. Every day our display is different.

What could the Westminster and/or Scottish Governments do that would help?

That’s a hard question. We’ve had incredible support through Business Gateway via local government but more support for small, fledgling businesses, particularly financial support would help.

The crisis in dairy farming and the butter shortage / price increases over the last year are a big issue, as is the cost of ingredients since the Brexit vote.

What is the most valuable lesson that you have learnt?

I guess it was learning to say no! In the beginning we took all the work we could and now I’m finding the confidence to turn things down that just aren’t right for us, that don’t fit in to our ethos on high quality, premium products.

How do you relax?

To be honest, there’s not a lot of time left between work and sleep but any spare time we do have is family time. And I’m afraid I do spend an awful lot of time reading baking blogs and cookbooks!