Scaling a bakery business is one thing, scaling it to more than 270 locations is another entirely. For Cake Box CEO Sukh Chamdal, the secret to success lies in a mix of sharp decision-making and unapologetic simplicity.
Speaking at the recent British Society of Baking’s (BSB) conference, the CEO outlined how he saw a gap in the market and turned it into a £60m turnover business with more than 270 stores across the UK – a number which is growing at pace thanks to its franchisees.
His energetic, no-nonsense presentation saw him impart his top lessons for business with the engaged audience. Here’s a few of the takeaways:
Have something to aim for
Chamdal opened the floor with a question to the younger attendees, asking “who wants to be a millionaire?” It might seem like a tongue-in-cheek question, but he asserted that without a goal in business or life you will be rudderless. “You need something to dream about,” Chamdal told attendees. “You may not achieve it; you may not get there… but you need something to aim for.”
Look, listen, learn
So, how do you get there? With the simple principle of the three Ls – look, listen, and learn. “I’ve been doing that all my life,” Chamdal explained.
It was this which led to him creating the egg-free Cake Box brand in the first place having identified a gap in the market. “I’m always asked ‘why is there no egg in your products?’” The answer, he noted, was simple – to corner as much of the market as possible.
Chamdal grew up in the London Borough of Newham, a place with a “very diverse population”. In removing that one ingredient the cakes became suitable for a myriad of consumers from “Hindus, Sikhs, people with dietary restrictions” to Muslims as the products are Halal by default as well as those simply seeking tasty celebration cakes. Cake Box also tapped into nostalgia and “unadulterated” indulgence as he “brought fresh cream back to the high street”.
Keep it simple
With 270-plus shops, there’s a lot of room for variation in skillset and therefore the finish of the end product. Not at Cake Box, insisted Chamdal. Likening the operation to Domino’s which provides its shops with the dough to make pizza, Cake Box provides its shops with baked sponges.
To ensure consistency in decoration, Cake Box utilises tools which help staff put precise amounts of filling on cakes and pipe with consistency, as well as a projector to ensure the personalised messages are nice and neat.
These tools were developed in response to the realisation that “as we scaled, we couldn’t scale the skill” so he decided to simplify the process and “let other bakers do the hard stuff”.
The simplicity extends to the range offered. There are three bases to choose from – plain, chocolate, and red velvet – with pre-determined combinations of toppings which can’t be changed. “Sorry, go to another shop,” was Chamdal’s honest reaction to customers asking for changes, noting that bespoke orders or changes are “a recipe for disaster”.
“The customers still have so much choice,” he said, noting that this business model means “you can go to any of our shops and find that every single cake is the same”.
This simplicity extends to the business model as well with all fees incorporated into the sponge. “We run a very unique model – I don’t charge marketing, and we don’t charge royalties,” he explained. “We’re very transparent, we put all of our costs into the sponge.
“That makes it so much easier. The franchisee works hard – the more they sell, the more they make. It’s all about keeping things simple.”
Know your customers
“Order it today, get it tomorrow” is something consumers are increasingly demanding. The “Amazon lifestyle” as Chamdal describes it is ingrained into society leading him to question “why can’t we do this for cakes?” Turns out you can, at least after Cake Box introduced click & collect in an hour.
Customers can choose from the 30 or 40 cakes on display in any of Cake Box’s shops at one time, have it personalised, and be on their way home with a cake in less than 60 minutes.
“If you don’t need to plan, you’re more likely to come into our shop,” Chamdal explained. “We have had a lot of traction with this.”
Don’t worry about reinventing the wheel
“Don’t worry about reinventing the wheel, improve it,” the CEO said. Chamdal was open about the fact that he didn’t invent eggless cakes, but he did “make it better, make it more convenient” for consumers to get their hands on them.
The same goes for trends. “We’ve got a department that just watches TikTok,” he exclaimed, with the trendspotter feeding back to the NPD team so they can get relevant products “on shelves within a few weeks”. He pointed to the Dubai Chocolate range which comprises whole cakes, brownies, cookie cups, and cake slices as an example of this, noting that it has been “absolutely phenomenal” for the business. “The trend has not died,” he added, “we thought it would die but it hasn’t.”
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