Here come the muffin men

Zoeb Bhujwalla, director, American Muffin Company, Park Royal, North London​

"Jose Mulji, the other director, and I were both originally in financial services and met through that, then decided we were going to set up a food company about 12 years ago. I had a small bakery and sandwich place in Clapham. Muffins were becoming popular from 1991 to 1996. We decided it was a good market and started formulating a plan, although we also make other items, including cakes, brownies and cookies, and different sizes and formats. One of the things that has really taken off for us is mini-products packs of six muffins.​

We embarked on this project when we were both around 40. I would like to think we've got a lot of energy, but I would have preferred to have been a bit younger when we started trading in 1998. Everything we make, we are ploughing back into the business. We're on basic salaries and we've been doing that for 10 years it's tough. Cash flow is always a problem for us and we couldn't have done it without the support of organisations such as Barclays, The Park Royal Partnership, the London Development Agency and UK Trade and Investment.​

There were already muffins on the market, but most people were supplying them frozen. Because of the logistics and capital expenditure involved with frozen muffins, we felt we needed to look at a different angle, so we looked at long shelf-life. Fortunately, we got the support of one of the suppliers of pre-mix, US firm Dawn Foods, although it didn't have experience in long shelf-life products. We developed an initial concept with them and have now developed our own products.​

Our first target was small independent stores and we quickly developed the concept of going to distributors, hospitality and catering firms. But our first big break came in airline catering, supplying companies such as Cathay Pacific. We work on a 'just-in-time' supply model, with a transport company collecting our products and taking them to our customers' depots.​

We were a small company, going up against big players such as McVitie's, The Fabulous Bakin' Boys and Speedibake who had been offering independent retailers strong offers like 'buy one, get one free' for two years.​

Somebody recently described us as agitators. We're small, but we can agitate the market and I'd like to think we were innovative in terms of product development. The challenge for a small company like us is to always create new markets, so momentum can't be lost. We always try to be proactive, looking at issues in newspapers and magazines and trying to cater for new needs. We start in collaboration with others, but aim as much as possible to bring everything in-house, so that we have a certain amount of control.​

I believe we were the first to develop a gluten-free muffin, which was taken up by supermarkets that recognised our product. The next stage, which we're exploring at the moment, is gluten free with dairy free. We're also looking to market a sugar-free product, which we have already developed. We're trying to cater for people's lifestyle choices. A lot of people may not be coeliacs, but would prefer a gluten-free diet with a product that should taste as good as the standard product.​

Another section that's growing at the moment is the egg-free market, for which we've had a tremendous number of enquiries from vegans or allergy sufferers. We started supplying egg-free products through local branch initiatives. Most of the Asian market would like to buy egg-free products and we're trying to convince the supermarkets to stock them nationally. We're also 100% halal.​

One important thing we're looking at with the supermarkets is savoury products, which we're going to introduce in the next two to three months. We're also going into cupcakes. We were among the first to launch a filled muffin. We launched a muffin filled with mincemeat one Christmas and we're looking at relaunching something similar in the future. A lot of people want that sort of product at the moment you get triple chocolate muffins, with chocolate pre-mix, chocolate chip and chocolate centre. And we're looking at cholesterol-lowering products with plant sterols.​

Most of our products have a 12-week shelf- life and we're looking at increasing that. It's a constant tussle between this and things like moisture content. We have been tweaking products for 11 years and I dare say we'll be tweaking them for the next 11. Now we're looking at natural ways to enhance shelf-life, so we'll be taking products into the area of organics. What's important is the eating quality, not just the microbial perspective. Adding fibre, for example, improves the moisture content and is also good for the stomach. We're also looking at tweaking other bulk ingredients such as milk powders to improve the taste.​

We were based in a smaller unit in Park Royal until 2006, then moved to our present location, which doubled our floor space. But we have plans to expand again, by building a mezzanine here in the next two to three months, which will add 50% to our floor space as back-up. We have approached the bank and are looking at lease purchase for machinery. Much of this will be used for packaging and finishing. We're looking at semi-automating systems at the moment, sourcing new depositors, for example.​

We also have certain bottlenecks in the factory. One is cooling, which is done naturally, so we're looking at cooling solutions. We have a new oven ready, to be commissioned in the next few months, and new denesting machines. The equipment will go downstairs and our offices will move upstairs. We also have room now to dedicate to a small test bakery and mini-lab to test for allergens.​

From our present premises we can easily double our capacity, and we have got some new lines going into some of the supermarkets. For example, we're doing one promotion for one of the multiples across Europe and producing one million units a quarter of our annual capacity in a month, so we'll be working 24 hours a day. Usually we only work one shift per day.​

We have hardly scratched the surface of the UK market, but there's also a good export market for 'free from' products. We're about to launch an e-commerce site so all of our products will be available online. We have had discussions with the Indian market through Gateway Business Consultants. India is a massive market with huge potential. A lot of people from India are strict vegans, so they don't eat eggs.​

The US has also seen something like 28% annual market volume growth in gluten-free products and our ultimate aim is to sell American muffins to the US."​

Interview by Rod Addy​

Factory Facts
​

Location​: American Muffin Co, 39 Minerva Road, Park Royal, London, NW10 6HJ. Tel: 020 8965 1041

Staff​: 16 A mix of full- and part-time staff

Operating hours:​ In standard periods, one shift of 6am4pm Monday to Friday, but can flex to 24 hours, six days a week

Products​: Muffins, flapjacks, brownies, cookies and cakes a mixture of 75% branded and 25% own-label products for convenience stores, caterers, airlines and top supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda, Sainsbury and Waitrose.

Output​: 45M units a year

Turnover​: £1M a year

Personal​

Name​: Zoeb Bhujwalla

Age​: 50

Career highlights: ​"Getting recognition from the buyers of most of the top supermarkets that we were producing good quality product it was a vindication of everything we were trying to do. Also, purchasing our current unit was a big milestone for us."

Domestic​: "I'm married, with two children 17 years old and 19 years old."

Outside work:​ "I like reading and I love cooking. I'm very passionate about food and I especially love Indian food."