Christopher's Bakery, Norfolk

Chris Williams met RSS Hereford at the Hotelympia exhibition in 2002. He was confident he’d found the right people to refit his thriving bakery and patisserie business and help it to diversify and take it to the next level.

As Chris explains, “Our customers knew that our breads and cakes were far superior to anything else around,” explains Chris. “We’re nicknamed ‘The best patisserie outside London’, but I wanted the environment to reflect it too.”

Working closely with Chris, RSS refitted his shop in June 2003. The long pearwood counter is the focus of the new 100 seat coffee shop. It has a large, chilled, moist area for the cakes, a hot food display, bain maries, and a coffee station.

In the first year after the refit, although the customer base remained the same, profits increased by 25%. Chris puts this down to customers spending longer in the stylish interior and being tempted by the attractive presentation of his mouth-watering products.

At the same time, Chris added an ice cream making facility and display to the shop. As he says, “Ice cream dovetails perfectly with patisserie, but I only wanted to sell the fresh, home-made variety or it would have tarnished my reputation.”

He makes 18 flavours and offers 12 each day from Easter to Christmas. On our advice Chris offers tasters to coffee shop customers. He claims that an incredible 6 out of 10 then buy either a cornet, tub or take home pack. Indeed, although the ice cream was intended only as a bolt-on, it already makes up 20% of the turnover!