EXPERT VIEW


formulation, the flour, contain added ingredients, actually doesn’t help at all the baker to make ‘better’ bread, but it can surely increase the inconsistency. It also makes problem solving and


troubleshooting so much more difficult as the baker doesn’t always know what’s in there! Furthermore, any variability of raw


materials, specifically the largest one, flour, leads to questionable quality, inefficient manufacture and increasing overheads due to the difficulty in managing both the designed ‘best cost’ formulation and critically, the actual baking process. In these highly competitive times any baker but especially one


in an industrialised market where the modern supermarket often dominates the supply chain, simply cannot afford to be either, using expensive materials he doesn't need, or suffer from poor or uneven product quality. There is however, a different lens to look through at our


question. If we look at the emerging bakery markets where the smaller, craft baker prevails, whilst some of the constituents of the above are the same, they do have marked differences. It is more likely, for example for the baker here to experience a


greater variability in the flour which is a direct result of variability in the wheat supply. Flour millers source locally grown wheat, grown by smaller


farmers which, by its very nature will mean greater variance. This variance, of course is potentially enhanced and developed


further if the mills are less sophisticated or if there are a greater number of smaller ones. This is especially so if their primary point of differentiation is based upon price and performance. It is within this emerging craft sector that the specialist bakery


supply companies will market their enzymes and ingredients to the millers more readily than to the bakers, as there are fewer of


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them and the general impact on their business will be greater. It is also a welcoming story to the miller,


who is under siege to find better consistency and iron out variability, to be informed that by using this ingredient package, you will experience a more consistent, stable product and even, perhaps, increase the water holding capacity of the flour, therefore providing a new and compelling differentiation point. The other vital element that enables this


development to take place is the craft baker himself. He is much closer to his product than the industrial baker. Often, he makes the


products himself and more often by hand. He can work through any variances, there and then, during the product make up. Perhaps, more importantly, the differentiation he can create


and promote is based on his skill as a baker and the variety of products he can produce to entice his customers. This baking skill is the cornerstone of his business and one that


needs to be extended and prioritised. The AB Mauri Business Model, referred to above is just as


relevant and necessary here in the craft baker as it was to the mechanised. The key difference is the detail, the content and the depth. We at AB Mauri believe that the stimulation the craft baker requires from his ingredient supplier is how they can enable his own convenience, assist with inventory management through the existence of a first class distribution supply. And, last but by no means least, provide an on-going stimulus


of exciting new products that can easily be prepared and produced within the scope and scale of his existing bakery environment with the added support and surety from information shared by the supplier that his customer’s will certainly want to buy and consume the products he makes ….repeatedly! n


European Baker Magazine - Digital Digest • www.worldbakers.com 8


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