The demand for baked items and convenience foods has shown a steady increase in recent years due to changing consumption patterns. Baked goods offer customers convenience and affordability, and the growing demand has led many home cooks and chefs to venture into the business. According to the leading market research company IMARC’s 4 July 2022 report, the global bakery product market reached USD497.5 billion in 2022 and could reach USD625.9 billion by 2028, exhibiting a growth rate of 3.7% during the period. It is vital for new entrepreneurs to understand bakery market trends and opportunities and for their business plans to include operations, financing, and marketing. It is also critical to select the appropriate products, technologies, ingredients, and logistics for making bakery enterprises profitable, productive, and sustainable.

Training in bakery business management is crucial for those who aspire to own or manage bakeries. It covers aspects such as inventory management, cost control, pricing strategies, marketing, customer service, and financial planning. Understanding these business fundamentals enables bakery owners and managers to make informed decisions, maximize profitability, and ensure the long-term success of their establishments.

Course Objectives

The main objectives of this course are:

• Introduce the scope and opportunities to establish  a successful small-scale bakery business.
• Share the latest trends in the bakery sector, including good manufacturing practices and food safety guidelines.
• Explore basic bakery business plans, including logistics, equipment and technology, financing, production, and marketing for sustained profitability and productivity performance.

Course Modules

This e-learning course will cover the following modules:
Module 1: Overview of the bakery business.
The bakery business and its trends, determining the style of business to suit specific target markets, and retail and wholesale marketing of bakery products.
Module 2: Bakery products, operations, and packaging.
Types of bakery products based on recipes, process control, shelf life, equipment requirements, roles of main and minor ingredients, and characteristics of packaged and unpackaged bakery products. 
Module 3: Selection of equipment and bakery layout including maintenance guidelines.
Detailed discussion of customized and optimized equipment to produce different bakery products, including layout for hygienic, quality-oriented production and how to implement maintenance plans.
Module 4: Food safety guidelines for bakery enterprises.
Significance of food safety and factors related to safe production of various bakery products, bakery products vulnerable to microbial spoilage, and maintaining personal and work hygiene standards. 
Module 5: Business plans, marketing strategies, and productivity, with examples from successful SMEs. 
Selecting a bakery style and creating a business plan and achieving ideal productivity and efficiency in a bakery business.

Important Notes:

1. Participants who register to take this course and pass the final examination with a score of 70% or higher will be eligible to receive the APO certificate. Please note that the final examination can be taken only once. Therefore, the most appropriate time to take the examination should be chosen carefully. The self-assessment quizzes are for personal evaluation only and are not related to the final examination results.
2. Participants who perform well in this course and receive the APO certificate will be given preference, on a merit basis, for selection to attend follow-up face-to-face multicountry APO projects on similar topics, when nominated by their NPOs and if slots are available.
3. Notes 1 and 2 are applicable only to participants from APO member countries. Participants from nonmember countries are welcome to take the course for self-improvement, although they will not have an opportunity to attend the follow-up face-to-face multicountry APO projects.
4. Each module is in a prerecorded video format in which the expert delivers presentations by explaining each slide. Participants can access the video by clicking on the link provided under the title of each module.