Hard work, dedication, determination, skills, and a little bit of luck all have a part to play in the success of the baking industry. But this recipe is missing a key ingredient – positivity.
This might seem obvious, and while I have always been aware of the passion that flows through the bakery sector, it feels like this positivity has risen to the surface again of late.
It could be because I have spent a fair amount of time at joyous events, such as Britain’s Best Cake and Loaf competitions and the Scottish Bakers awards, but I am definitely feeling the bakery love right now and I hope you are too. Fearing that this might not be the case for everyone given the constant challenges being thrown at businesses, and how easily it can be to be bogged down by day-to-day life, I wanted to share some of my recent experiences and lessons to add some levity.
Your reaction can be the difference between success and failure
Emma Kelly describes herself as “the world’s most enthusiastic girl”, a description I’m confident nobody at the recent British Society of Baking (BSB) conference would argue with as she was a veritable tornado of energy up on stage.
Her enthusiasm was noted early on in her bakery journey, earning her a nomination for the Rising Star Award in 2018, and continues to this day. She studied at The Sheffield College, has spent time at Hovis and Roberts Bakery before taking up her current role as bakery specialist at Reiser UK.
Despite her seemingly boundless energy and enthusiasm, she acknowledges that things can and often do go wrong in bakery.
“Sometimes we have these amazing days where we’re baking and everything’s beautiful and there’s so much nice bread and you feel like ‘I’m so lucky to be a part of this industry’,” she said. “And sometimes it’s absolute carnage, you’re surrounded by hot tins, everything’s hot, everyone’s shouting, there’s flour everywhere and you just think ‘I just need this day to end and tomorrow to be better’.”
When faced with difficult days and difficult decisions, the way you handle it can often be the deciding factor between success and failure, she told the audience.
“Having a positive, proactive and calm attitude towards change, the chaos and the issues that come up, is key to being able to manage those inconsistencies and those difficulties with efficiency. You’re not always going to get it perfect, but managing the situation calmly is, in my opinion, often the defining factor for getting it right or getting it very, very wrong.”
In a role where she travels the country helping bakeries overcome challenges, Emma is constantly tested, constantly troubleshooting, but firmly believes it’s worth it. “We have to be willing to roll with the punches and go with the flow and take whatever bakery is going to throw at us,” she added.
You’re in the wrong industry if you’re not positive
When I asked Peter Wenzel in a recent interview (stay tuned for the write-up) how he stays so positive given the constant stream of challenges, he said that people who don’t “are in the wrong trade” and “haven’t got the get up and go”. A message he isn’t afraid to share with them either.
Peter’s enthusiasm for bakery and drive to make improvements was seemingly endless as he exclaimed: “The day I wake up and drive into Wenzel’s and think I’m not happy, I haven’t got that get up and go, then I will go and leave it to somebody else.”
Even with 50 years under his belt since starting the business, and now in the position of chairman with his daughter Sarah as CEO, it’s unlikely that day will come anytime soon.
This passion is just one of the reasons he received the Outstanding Contribution to the Baking Industry last year. Even in his acceptance speech did his enthusiasm shine through, noting that “I’m the driver of the car but my team are the engine. Without a good engine, you’re no good.”
Back to the recent interview, sat beside a cabinet which held his trophy and a selection of family photos and trinkets, he continued this thread. “We are the leaders within our business and if we’re not being positive to our staff, what chance have we got? When I started with one shop, I used to sit in the little room upstairs doing wages for six or seven people and I realised that they rely on me.”
The number of people relying on Wenzel’s has since grown to around 1,200 but the ethos remains.
Bakeries build communities
It’s hard not to feel uplifted in Tona Erreguin’s presence. Indeed, upon announcing that Imma the Bakery had won Britain’s Best Loaf 2026 for its Cantabric Ogi, I was physically uplifted as Tona was so overjoyed at the news that she embraced me in an all-encompassing hug.
But speaking at the recent BSB conference, her positivity flowed in a more toned down but no less passionate way. Taking to the stage, she spoke of how her passion for food and bakery was sparked, and the importance of artisan bakeries in local communities.
“Villages and towns need places where you can create a community,” she explains. “As much as pubs are a very good place to socialise, that sensation is often washed away by a couple of pints. When you go to a bakery, you actually speak to your neighbour, get to know each other, even if it just starts by discussing what bread is the nicest.
“You create roots in your village, in your town, in your community. People start offering you things and it really humbles you to see that response.”
This has seen locals offer to deliver products when a van has broken down, bring in foraged ingredients, and even get hands on for shifts when the bakery has been short of hands.
With this in mind, she, like Emma, also highlighted the need to stay positive when things don’t go to plan.
“Mistakes happen,” she said, sharing an incident which saw Imma find new ways to utilise 80kgs of hot cross bun dough because “someone forgot to put yeast in” and another in which a staff member put sugar instead of salt into a 50kg batch of bread. “There will always be mistakes, but you just need to tackle them, learn from them and try your best to be better the next day, and the next day.”
No comments yet