Lluvia Bakery’s founder Durga Menon talks about creating a place where freshly baked bread and dreams coexist.
This article is the result of me following the aroma of an orange marmalade tea cake. I picked up this tea cake from the store for no particular reason. Opening the brown cover did not just give me a delicious cake to eat, but also lead me to the doors of Lluvia Bakery- a social enterprise where food benefits both those who consume it and those who make it. Meet Durga Menon founder of Lluvia Bakery.
As I sit in the bakery setting up for the interview, I am offered a cup of freshly prepared chai. There is cheerful banter going on in the background. The oven is hot and the air is dense with the aroma of baked goodies. Durga pulls up a chair with her own cup of chai and talks about her journey from being an IT professional to a baker and from the USA to India. “ I started experimenting with baking when we decided to make the conscious effort to change to a healthier lifestyle. My attempts were aimed at finding healthy alternatives to our regular favorites. I was baking for friends, colleagues, and family. It was my husband who suggested that I should take my passion to the next level and do it full time.“
Durga took her time to set foot into the world of entrepreneurship- 5 years to be specific. She took a few baking classes and worked on perfecting her recipes (which her colleagues were already whisking away from her table in no time). She also worked on weekends at the Starbucks express counter, just to get gain experience in customer interaction. Talk about being thorough.
Once they moved back to India, Durga’s initial idea for Lluvia was a coffee nook. “I thought of setting up a small coffee place where people can enjoy a good cup of coffee with biscotti. I really enjoyed baking different varieties of biscotti. But once we did a small survey of the place , we found that a bakery might be more fitting to people’s needs.“
Towards the end of 2009 Durga opened her kitchen doors to friends and by 2010 she was taking commercial orders.
“I would wake up at 2:30 in the morning to bake, just so that I have uninterrupted power supply. I would finish my orders for the day by 8:30 am and have them ready to be delivered. Whole wheat based baked products were still a novelty back then. I found my initial set of clients purely through word of mouth marketing. As orders increased I hired one more baker to help me out. My first employee Vinod and I know all our customers till date by name. He was studying when he started working with Lluvia. He would come after college to help out.”
The story of how she got her first big order is definitely worth sharing. “The company Genesis Colors was working on bringing big designer brands to UB City Mall in Bangalore. Somebody had eaten my brownie and the marketing manager from UB City called me to ask if I could make gift boxes for Jimmy Choo’s high-end customers.” While Durga did not immediately realise the clout of this order, she agreed to it and was given specific instructions on the contents and packaging. Only when she worked out all the details did she come to know that the people who would be getting her gift boxes were celebrities like Puneeth Rajkumar, Keerthi Reddy, and cricketer Anil Kumble, among others.
With increased orders, Durga found a separate place for her venture. Influenced by Muhammad Yunus, Durga, and her husband tried to set up a self-help group in his hometown. Although the self-help group did not turn out the way they expected it to, Durga applied the same principles to Lluvia.
The Lluvia team consists of people from low-income backgrounds, who approached Durga for domestic work. She trained them on baking and managing the bakery. While initially, they worked on Durga’s recipes, they now come up with their own suggestions and ideas to implement at Lluvia.
I looked back at the scene behind us in the bakery and found it hard to believe that some of them had probably never seen an oven before they met Durga. As one of the employees pulls out a freshly baked bread from the oven, there is an ease to the whole act. This bread is now a part of their daily life. “They own the company. As the revenue gets better their salaries are increased and increments do happen often. Some of them are studying. Others need the money to support their families. Some even have plans of starting their own business in the future.“, says Durga.
A Hotel Management graduate will soon be joining Durga’s team. She heard about the work they do and wanted to be part of a venture of this nature.
Packaged in simple paper bags, Lluvia products are a reflection of the person behind them. The packaging for their bread comes from Seva in Action. While there have been a few questions from retailers on making the packaging more attractive, Durga believes that the product is what matters and the brand speaks for itself.
While training unskilled employees and making them financially competent does sound great, en route challenges are plenty. Quality needs constant vigilance and it takes a while to get the entire process set. Durga has had very few breaks in the last few years. Lluvia customers, she says, have stayed with her through this journey and every once in a while she gets a call from someone praising their products. In fact, one of their customer’s requested them to bake Pumpkin Muffins for her ailing father based on his dietary constraints. Lluvia delivered a special batch of these muffins. “These moments make it all worthwhile.”
Lluvia Bakery is located is Sarjapur Road. Their products are also available in select retail stores. Do stop by their website and their Facebook page to know more.
All Images Courtesy of Lluvia Bakery
Lluvia Bakery Quick Facts
| Founder | Durga Menon |
| Concept | Healthy baked products with the best of ingredients. |
| Facebook Page | Facebook page |
| Hot now | Tea Cakes |
| For queries
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email: durga@lluviabakery.com
visit http://www.lluviabakery.com/
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