La Mercy bakers rise to great heights despite challenges

WHAT started as a side-line business in 2013 is now a flourishing bakery, creating employment and developing skills in the city.

Bakers Gallery SA, situated at Dube Tradeport Mini Factories, near King Shaka Airport, is an affordable mass-market cake and pastries offering, specialising in high-end celebratory cakes.

“In 2020, we had our first break into the retail sector with a contract to supply cake loaves, cake slices, cake rings, cupcakes, biscuits, tarts, and pastries to a Spar store. Within eight months, we were supplying 10 Durban-based supermarkets,” said Skhumbuzo Maphanga, an Executive Pastry Chef with international experience and the founder of Bakers Gallery SA.

Maphanga’s business started small, supplying a home industries shop in Morningside to supplement his Durban ICC Pastry Chef’s salary.

Fast forward five years, and his talent had grown to such an extent that he was working around the clock, and he had to make a choice between his full-time job or building a business. The latter won, and Bakers Gallery SA was registered as a business.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit, his survival plan was moving into the mass-market cake line, and it worked. The speciality celebratory cake orders halted.

Siphesihle Maphanga followed in his older brother’s footsteps and also trained as a chef. He was drawn into the business, and with his creative flair, his forte is the intricate decoration and painting of celebratory cakes.

Another partner in the business is Ntobeko Ndlovu, a qualified educator and medical scientist who has brought his strategic thinking and business management skills to Bakers Gallery, changing it from a hobby into a business.

“He saw the potential in this line of business and gave up teaching temporarily and jumped in with an aim of changing the ‘side-line hobby’ into a formal business. He brought in proper processes, bookkeeping and financial management which were crucial to us for raising funding from one of the big-five financial institutions,” said Maphanga.

The trio’s future plans are to supply retail central distribution centres and use online shopping platforms, like Takealot, to market their cookie line.

“The evidence is there. In a space of eight months, we were selling into 10 Spar stores. This tells us that the demand for our products is very high. If we are to meet our goals of supplying our products nationally, we will need to run two to three shifts a day to achieve the volumes. We also anticipate that by also selling cookies in bulk online, we will be well positioned to grow exponentially,” said Maphanga.

They have started short baking courses and plan to open a training facility for people who have a passion for baking and the art of cake making, which they have opened to disadvantaged youth.

“It will also be a great way to teach people how to bake and empower themselves by means of selling,” said Maphanga.

In addition to the three executives, Bakers Gallery employs four people – three bakers who started as dishwashers and were trained to bake from scratch.