The Cake Packaging Business Plan

The Cake Packaging Business Plan

The Cake Packaging Business Plan Overview

This Cake Packaging Business Plan is part of a project exploring the feasibility of various ideas as requested by our customers. This particular case is part of a series exploring opportunities and gaps in the small and medium scale bakery business.

Cake Packaging In Kenya

Once a baker prepares a cake she has to pack and have it ready for the customer. The baker could be delivering the cake herself or the customer could be picking it. Cakes as baked by the bakers who are the focus of this research are soft and fragile. (Unlike rigid cakes found in some supermarkets and among some low end bakers).

They will have creams, icings and other forms of decorations. Modern cakes come in all manner of shapes from footballs, cars, graduation gowns, houses and such others.

Transporting the soft cake is a delicate exercise. Once the cake is ready, the baker places the cake in a box. To make sure the cake remains in shape or and does not leak through the paper box, a board is placed at the bottom. The box, often without a handle, is held with both hands from the bottom and transported. If there are several cakes they could be placed in a paper bag and held from the top.

Standard boxes as those which have been in the market for ages are 4 inches high. This means that if the cake is more than 4 inches high the baker has to modify the box to fit the cake. Though now boxes 5 inches high boxes are being gradually introduced into the market there are still challenges when transporting taller cakes.

Delivering a cake is not just about how the cake is baked, but also about presentation. That is why packaging is very important in the cake business. In Kenya there are not so many packaging options and bakers have been limited to largely white plain boxes 4 inches high.

Cake packaging, in Kenya is conservative or as one baker put it “unimaginative”. Another said it’s boring and not keeping with trends. This all in relation to what is available internationally .

Bakers will buy boxes from fellow bakers or other such small shops largely due to convenience. A baker receives an order and rather than go all way to the CBD to buy boxes, she opts to buy the box in the neighborhood and pay the extra Kshs.20 or so.

Though in some ways this is debatable, by virtue of their years in business and interaction with bakers they definitely understand the market better. It’s a whole question whether they put this knowledge into use.

Download The Cake Packaging Business Plan / guide here