Interview with Agatha Kulaga
Co Owner Ovenly (with Erin Patinkin)
With Kathryn Gordon, Food Startup Help
Editor’s Note: Food Startup Help worked with Ovenly in
2013 over a multi month period to strategize regarding expansion plans and
optimize operational efficiency.
Agatha Kulaga and Erin Patinkin, photo credit The Kitchn
Kathryn: Hi Agatha! I haven’t seen you in months -- how’s everything going? And how's it going with the Ovenly cookbook project?
Agatha: Great! Very well actually. The book is due out in October. There will be an ebook issued before
that, as a teaser. Erin and I are
very happy the way its come out, although this week we’re still deciding on the
cover with the publisher (Harlequin).
Kathryn: Can you remind me how you and Erin met and
started the bakery? Did you know you wanted your own retail (brick and mortar) type of bakery?
Agatha: No! We actually met at a food focused book
club that was started by my childhood friend. We both were career changers with some background in the
restaurant business, and we both individually knew we wanted to do something in
food but were looking for the right opportunity. We started talking after the book club, mulled it over for
about a year, and 3 1/2 years ago incorporated.
Kathryn: Was your original
concept the way Ovenly is now, with a retail bakery and a large wholesale
operation?
Agatha: Not at all. At first we produced bar snacks for some friends here in
Greenpoint (Brooklyn) with a bar, and then that evolved with orders for pastries,
and more bar snack orders for Brooklyn Brewery. It all took off from there.
Kathryn: For anyone who hasn’t visited Ovenly
yet, how would you describe your business?
Agatha: Ovenly represents “craft,” timeless and
classic creativity. This is a very
trendy area, and we don’t want to be just part of trend. We are an artisanal, homey bakery
offering our customers consistent product, and we want to appeal to a variety
of people. We have
wonderful customers.
Kathryn: How many square feet is your facility
here (31 Greenpoint Avenue)?
Agatha: It’s about 2,100 square feet with 350
for the retail, 900 on this floor for bakery production, and our basement prep
and storage areas. We also rent
office space nearby.
Kathryn: I remember visiting you
for the first time and a film company had rented out your retail space to film
that day, and they were making a movie with Ann Hathaway sitting right here.
Agatha: They are always filming in
Greenpoint! Several times we’ve
been featured in films and TV, and we appeared as Ovenly on the Cooking
Channel.
Kathryn: How many employees do you have?
Agatha: 23. 16 are full time and 7 part
time. It’s a mix of the front of
the house, office staff and bakers but it is primarily baking staff. They bake in 3 shifts a day, with deliveries
going out from midnight onwards.
Kathryn: When you started talking to Food
Startup Help, you were undergoing substantial growing pains.
Agatha: I would say that going through growth
phases is always challenging.
Right now we are planning the opening of our second retail location
(which will be in Manhattan). We
have a constantly expanding wholesale operation driving our sales (including
Whole Foods for our scones), and we have started doing more wedding cakes.
We’ve accomplished a big operational improvement. We have now
managed to cross train our baking staff, rather than have them each focus on
specialized tasks.
Kathryn: And from the time Jeff (Yoskowitz) and
I first visited the bakery, you’ve rearranged completely?
Agatha: After talking to you, the first thing
we had to do was buy more muffin and loaf pans, scales, etc. to allow our
bakers to stage their daily production most efficiently. We bought more 80Q Hobart bowls and
attachments for example, to be able to more effectively manage the
production. We reorganized the
entire kitchen in terms of lighting, tables, metro racks, etc. The space opened up and is now much
better utilized. We’re now considering adding another bank of ovens. General storage space continues to be a
challenge, with limited walk in freezer and fridge space to manage all of the
speed racks required for this production level.
Kathryn: How do you and Erin divide up your
projects as business partners?
Agatha: At first, Erin and I pretty much did
everything together every day, including baking and running the entire
operation. Now it’s too big and
too complicated, so we subdivide and delegate or we would just be doubling our
efforts and get exhausted. We have
nightly recap sessions, and we regularly schedule brainstorming sessions to set
our next direction and priorities.
Kathryn: What have been your biggest surprises,
running a bakery with Erin?
Agatha: We’ve learned how valuable employees
are. You cannot underestimate good
employees -- they support your business as it is always evolving. You need to support your
employees because they support you.
Running a business is much more than you baking “your cookie”
recipe. There’s workman’s comp,
and employee HR, and financing and budgeting and everything else you need to
know to be successful.
Kathryn: Speaking of employees, how has
President Obama’s health care reform affected you?
Agatha: When we first started, none of us had
health insurance. For a few years,
we offered it only to salaried employees.
In the past few years, we were able to offer insurance to all our
employees. Now we can offer a
better plan, although it is more expensive, and only some employees who are
still covered under their parent’s plan are not covered by us.
The Wall Street Journal is running an installment piece covering
small businesses under health care reform and have interviewed us on health
insurance under Obama care - the first installment including Ovenly should
appear in the next few weeks.
Kathryn: Thanks for your time Agatha, and we’ll
catch up with you later after you open your second retail location!
