Baking up a new name

It’s back to basics for originator of popular concept

ONE of Durban’s landmark bakeries is getting a new look to distinguish it from franchises set up in an expansion drive.

The original Bread Ahead, on Problem Mkhize Road, near Durban’s Botanic Gardens, will now be known as The Breadmill.

David Tedder, the owner of Bread Ahead for nine years, says the rebranding is necessary because of public confusion over how the franchise model operated.

When Tedder took over the bakery, he embarked on an expansion, opening mini bakeries at shopping centres on the Bluff and in Amanzimtoti, Waterfall, Pinetown and Westville.

He later sold these businesses, divorcing them from the Bread Ahead on the Berea, but customers who did not know this called him to complain about the mini bakeries.

“Customers think that because this is the original Bread Ahead, there must be a connection. We do not want that confusion to persist,” he says.

On April 1, the 30-year-old bakery will be rebranded. The smaller franchises will continue to operate as Bread Ahead, he says.

“It has been on the back burner for the past year,” he says.

“We want to retreat back to a familyowned Durban bakery.

“In hindsight, if I’d known what I know now, I would not have opened the other bakeries. We really want to return to the authentic one-off business.”

The bakery employs 70 staff and became a 24-hour operation in 2008 after President Jacob Zuma remarked that Durban went quiet after 10pm.

“We gave it a try and it worked for us. A lot of people are up working through the night – police, nurses – so there has been a positive change and our staff went up from 28 to 70 because of this move,” he says.

Tedder, has two children, Nevan, 4, and 15-month-old Layla. His wife Vanessa is expecting a baby in May.

The Eshowe High-schooled businessman worked in retail for almost 20 years before buying an antique furniture shop in Glenwood, his first foray into business.

When he sold the shop, he had enough money to buy the Bread Ahead business, “my most successful”, he quips.

“We take pride in appealing to every type of person; it does not matter which race or religion you belong to, customers come in and out. We treasure that about our business and our employees, some of whom have served for over 30 years,” he says.

“We are in the business of making people happy,” he adds.

Tedder says he did not regret selling the mini-bakeries as it gave him more time to focus on his young family.

“I don’t want 50 shops anymore. I will be very happy to have this bakery for the rest of my life,” he says.