Project plan (Dutch): make_it_ghana
Bakery – Introduction
Bake for Life is one of the projects from hope for life and has a Dutch sponsor, Bake Five. However, the bakery is self sufficient and only gets money in the form of a loan. The bakery has a manager and a front man who do not have a disability. In addition to these two man, the bakery has 3 employees and 3 three part time cleaners who all have a disability.
Weekly routine
Baking activities – Three active baking times: Sunday, Tuesday and thusday nights.
They start their day at 20.00, and work until 03.00 in the morning. After this, the breads are delivered by one of the employees. During daytime, there are four ladies cleaning the bakery. Daily managing is in the hands of Friedl Nelissen (Dutch). There is room for more production with the current capacity and occupation scheme. Bread is delivered the next morning by two chauffeurs to fuel stations, coffee shops, super markets and restaurants.
The Bakery is a success for several reasons:
- The bakery makes high quality bread, which can be seen as almost similar to Dutch bread (contrary to the Ghanese bread which is cheaper but does not fill well). Guality bread means brown bread, which is something very unusual in Ghana. Furthermore, the bakery produces white bread, raisin bread and wheat bread.
- Relative high amount of stable clients (like exclusive hotels, supermarkets and organizations) Broad distribution by car possible.
Bake for Life has additional involved projects that have proven fruitful:
- Bake for Life has also started up the ‘Bethanie House’. The house offers a day care program for disabled people, and together with the Liliane foundation they select people that are suitable for the program in the Bakery.
- Hope for Life has also been setting up a coffee shop (real coffee, another delicate product in Ghana) that also provides employment to disabled people. It sells the bakery’s products as well.
Project Plan
The bakery is located in a sub urban area. It is difficult to transport the bread from the bakery to the city centre of Accra. However, since their area of distribution is currently there, they have two cars travelling down there.
The bakery has plans to also produce bread for the local area, where they are located. This bread is a more traditional, local successful Ghanese sort, called sugar bread and tea bread. These breads will first be sold to local people (disabled and non-disabled) who then go sell the products in Accra. This will be done under a different name, in order not to lose market from bake for life. Friedl, as the voice of Bake for Life, has identified the following goals and tasks for this project.
- Investigate whether it is possible and profitable to go to this market.
- Investigate the best strategy for distribution – Transport (for the bakery and bread venders) – Possibility of storage.
- Investigate how many disabled are interested in selling this bread / investigate how to motivate them to sell the bread.
- Investigate the demand for local bread in Accra.
Our Mission
Our mission will be to invest in the development of extending the bakery’s activities. Our team will analyze* the current situation, and develop a plan to sell local bread the local area. Moreover, we will use the direct contact and supervision of Friedl Nelissen, to discuss and realize the plan (and ‘product’) to make this a new, successful addition to the bakery.
(*define the market opportunities, distribution possibilities, and local conditions and prospects etc.).
