Isabel Pasch, Bread and Butter bakery and cafe

Isabel Pasch and her staff, from left, Aurelien Conquenlorge, Andre Marten and Marco Strauss.

When and why did you come to New Zealand?

I came here in 1999 to do a Master's degree in marine microbiology at Auckland University. I enjoyed myself and also met my now husband. He wanted to do his OE so we went to Berlin, where I'm from. We started PhDs but got halfway through and decided not to continue. I did a journalism degree in Berlin and started a company with another woman specialising in science PR. When our second child was born we decided it would be fantastic for the kids to grow up in New Zealand, so we started planning to come back.

How did you make the transition to the baking industry from science?

Science PR is a niche market, even in Germany, so the other idea I had was bread. Like most Germans I love bread and in the two years I had lived here it was the only thing I missed, besides friends and famil. So I thought, 'I'll start a bakery.' During my last year in Germany I worked for a friend who had a large organic bakery in Berlin to get an idea of what it was like. When we came to New Zealand in 2010, we bought a cute little bakery in Ellerslie that was doing organic bread. I come from a family of passionate cake-bakers, so for the first two years I did all the cake and pastry-baking and employed a professional bread-baker. In 2011, I met my now business partners in Bread and Butter. The timing was right. In early 2013 we opened our flagship bakery and cafe in Grey Lynn, as well as our store in Ponsonby, and five weeks ago we opened a store in Milford.

What challenges have you encountered with this business, especially related to being from Germany?

The main one is finding good bakery staff. Bread-baking is an incredibly hard job. People have to appreciate the beauty of bread and the philosophy of making it, because if they don't have that love for the product most people won't last. But because New Zealand doesn't have the strong bread culture you find in Europe, it's a challenge to find good staff who have that knowledge and passion. The other challenge is being organic. For me that's important. I believe it's not only better for our bodies, but my science background has given me an appreciation of how we need to live sustainably within this closed ecosystem. Organics have really been embraced in Europe, particularly in Germany. People see the value in it and a lot more organic food options are available. But it has not been embraced to the same level here yet and a lot of our wholesale customers don't even tell their customers our product is organic. They buy from us because they like our bread, so they don't necessarily see the value in it being organic, which makes it hard to completely recover the added cost.

What advice have you for German entrepreneurs setting up a business here?

After running my small bakery for a couple of years I realised that if I wanted to expand I needed structures, systems and guidance. Unless you have enough money to spend time understanding the local market before starting your business, then I recommend partnering with the right experts who can help you find and grow your market.

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