Why not a bakery business?

MANILA, Philippines - Are you planning to put up a business? Why not try a bakery? It is profitable, can be started at home and allows the owner to grow the business gradually as his capital, interest and knowledge of the business increases.

Filipinos love to eat bread and the business minded should keep this in mind. Pandesal is the usual breakfast fare most Pinoys can’t do without before starting their days. Snacks are usually a few slices of bread taken with coffee, softdrinks or fruit juice. An aspiring bakery businessman should therefore have these two products in his list and expand from there.

Other Pinoy favorites are ensaymada, pan de coco, monay, and mamon, while the more affluent ones may opt for cinnamon rolls, French bread, hamburger buns and other more sophisticated and therefore, costlier stuff.

The enterprising baker must know his market and tailor-fit his products to the kind of customers he caters to. A bakery in Tondo, for example, must have products geared for the Tondo market and not for the more sophisticated Makati or Greenhills crowd.

From one sack of flour, and using the most common formula for the production of loaf bread, a baker can produce 81 loaves weighing 550 grams each. Total cost of materials, packaging and overhead cost is P2,536.13. At a selling price of P40 per loaf, gross revenues will add up to P3,240 for a gross margin of P703.87 per bag.

For pan de sal, gross earning per sack of flour is even bigger due to the lower cost of pan de sal flour and less ingredients to be used. Each bag of flour produces 1,800 pieces of pan de sal weighing 25 grams each. At P2 per piece, total sales is P3,600 for a margin of P2,517.63 per sack. From these gross earnings, the baker must deduct the cost of manpower, rentals and of course, taxes to be paid.

The prospective bakery businessman must, however learn how to bake before jumping into the pan, so to speak. In fact, any businessman worth his salt must first learn the trade he wants to invest in before pouring in his hard earned money. One must not depend entirely on hired hands to run the business. This is particularly true in baking.

The best place to learn baking the commercial way is at the PAFMIL Baking Center at the DSWD Jose Fabella Compound, Correctional Road in Mandaluyong City. This baking school is run by the Philippine Association of Flour Millers (PAFMIL) and is staffed by well-known and competent baking instructors who have many years of experience of baking instruction. Visiting instructors from the flour milling and bakery industries also come in to impart knowledge and valuable inputs.

Aspiring bakery businessmen or those who wish to be employed as bakers must take the Basic Commercial Baking Course, a 20-day program designed to equip trainees with a combination of skills and knowledge in baking. Each student is required to produce bread every day and critique his production so that he could improve and produce better bread the next day. Only 25 students will be taken each class and the course will be offered only four times a year.

The Basic Commercial Baking Course will begin on Jan. 31, 2011. Reservations are now being accepted. Tuition fee for the 20-day commercial baking course is P15,000 inclusive of ingredients, hand-outs and other technical materials. Inquiries may be made at PAFMIL Baking Center, tel. no. 8619599 or email at [email protected].