Here’s to infinity!

7.3 million sourdough loaves sold. 22.1 million croissants sold. Happy 20^th Birthday Seven Seeded!

Behind those dazzling numbers is a tale of endurance. Twenty years ago CEO David was still in long shorts but he tips his hat at the foresight of the original owners for getting into the artisanal baking industry before it was fashionable.

Bakery Director, Gary has been with Seven Seeded for twelve years. He remembers the old factory in Rickmansworth . “The storage unit was across the road, you had to put bags of flour on a trolley, and avoid the traffic.” Now everything is under one roof and the units are all temperature controlled. The premises aren’t the only change. Gary started as pastry chef when there were ten employees. “I liked how simple it was to be on the bench – rolling dough & shaping.” Now he’s in charge of a team of 115, with an overview on the day-to-day runnings of the whole operation. We deliver 360 days. That is 360 opportunities to delight or dismay.

David hopes the company might double in size in the next five years, but he knows how easy it is to lose what the team have already built. “Few outside the bakery world can comprehend the relentless early mornings and late nights, the sheer physicality of baking tons of dough, the accidents, the late deliveries, the complaints.”  Bread is a living thing that can behave in unpredictable ways, and the team at Seven Seeded work twenty fours a day seven days a week constantly monitoring, improving & innovating.  There is no mountain-top where they can rest and survey their success. Every day presents new challenges, and loyalty only goes so far. It takes years to build up loyal customers, and then a few mistakes and they might go elsewhere. Hence, every delivery day is lived like it’s their last. A mixture of obsession, focus and care allows Seven Seeded to remain at the top of their game.

“Complacency will kill us. It’s why we’re constantly trying to improve the product” says David as he shows me a crème brulee croissant they have in the works.  “But as you get better it gets harder. To take the company from ‘ok’ to ‘very good’ is an achievement, to take it from ‘very good’  to ‘excellent’ is an extraordinary challenge. Hiring and keeping talent is one way to ensure that excellence, and it’s easier to hire talent when you’re in a growth mindset. Who doesn’t want to work with a company that is on the up?

New Instagram-friendly artisanal bakeries spring up in London every week, but for all Seven Seeded’s success in cakes (over 500,000 sold since opening) they’re keen to not be swayed by colourful fads. I ask David to play at prophet and ask what bread will we be eating in the next twenty years? He believes  the old masters – sourdough and croissants – will endure. Seven Seeded are convinced if they can increase the quality of the offer on those staples every year then England will be in a healthier happier place.

Currently, Gary’s favourite bread is the infinity sourdough.  Why the name? Because part of each loaf begins with yesterday’s waste — blended into a paste, folded into today’s dough, and baked into something new. Then tomorrow, it happens again.  A fitting choice of bread for the 20^th birthday celebrations. Here’s to infinity!