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Posted: Fri 5th Feb 2021
Her son's food allergies inspired Valeria Mizuno-Turner to launch the Incredible Bakery Company, a vegan and gluten free craft bakery.
The entrepreneur shares her business story and explains how, with the help of an Amazon Small Business Accelerator Bootcamp for food businesses, she is now selling on Amazon's online store.
My son was born with food allergies. When his first birthday arrived, I couldn't buy him a birthday cake because he's allergic to gluten, dairy, eggs, soya and peanuts. At the time the gluten free and egg free market was only just beginning.
I started baking at home and I gave the breads and cakes to friends. Friends started wanting to buy the products, so I started selling. We found a listing in two places in London where we used to live.
A few months later we decided it was time to invest in the business and at the time Northamptonshire County Council was offering a relocation grant. We applied and got accepted.
We sold the house, came to Northamptonshire and got the factory unit we are still in now. But we had to start from zero because we couldn't supply to the same customers in London as we hadn't cracked the distribution.
We started as a local business supplying local people but bit by bit we learned how to do nationwide distribution.
We looked everywhere. I was losing sleep. We had a deadline with Northamptonshire County Council to find a place.
My husband is from Northamptonshire and his mum always talked to me about the Duke of Buccleuch. By chance we drove past Boughton House, the Duke's estate, and I decided to write to him to see if he had any units available.
By chance a unit that was used previously as a commercial kitchen was available. It was perfect timing. We got the unit and it had most of the equipment we needed to get started.
Years later I did my husband's family free because his family has been in Northamptonshire for nearly 500 years. I found out he had a relative that lived on the same estate where we have our factory in the 16th century!
Not everyone has a duke to turn to for a factory but when you run a business, it's sometimes from the most unusual places that you find what you need.
The previous lease holders of our factory had spent money bringing it to a good standard and the duke didn't want to lose all that. My advice for finding a factory is to look for one that was previously used for something like your business.
Rather than just asking if someone has a business unit, ask if they know of a similar business vacating a place. That could give you a head start without breaking the bank.
The website was for many years just in the background. Fast forward to 2020 and in the first four months of the year we had the same number of sales on the website that we had for the whole of 2019.
We didn't spend a penny more on marketing but we saw a rise in sales due to supermarkets not being able to fulfil people's orders. We realised that we needed to offer what people wanted.
We were working with distributors who didn't have restaurants to sell to but they had plenty of fresh produce that they didn't know what to do with. We made alliances with distributors and sold their fresh fruit and vegetables on our website.
This year has made us realise that not only can we sell through our own website but we can capitalise on websites like Amazon too. Amazon is well established and it helps businesses to step up and be found by consumers who have never heard of them.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we don't know how our B2B trade will perform in 2021 so I think we'll continue to see an increase in online sales next year.
I receive the Enterprise Nation newsletter so when I saw a bootcamp I thought 'yes, let's do it!'.
Years ago, we had a listing on Amazon for one product. It didn't really go anywhere and we weren't successful so we stopped.
I wanted to start selling on Amazon again in 2020 though so I applied for the bootcamp to get some tips.
It was very good and it helped us to understand Amazon and the marketing we can do to promote our products. I feel much more confident with selling on Amazon now I have done the bootcamp.
We have started an Amazon store with our Vegan Afternoon Tea and Afternoon Tea Selection with Whipped Cream products so people can see us as a brand.
We've had some sales which is a good sign. It's just a question of putting more effort into growing it.
I think Amazon can be a significant part of our business as it has a huge audience. People are looking for the kind of products that we sell.
I believe we can grow to the point where we understand what's popular on Amazon and we can look into using Fulfilment by Amazon. That's a big and unparalleled advantage that Amazon gives to businesses.
Running a business is like building your own boat. You need to have a draft plan. You can't just get the wood and start chopping. At the end of the day, you'll have a pile of wood you don't know what to do with.
Remember that there are good and bad days for everyone. On your bad days, remember the good days and on your good days, make sure you write down what happened so you never forget them.
Running a business is a constant journey of learning and making yourself and your business better. Every single person you meet on your journey could be a key person to help you in the future.
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