Agne Petroseviciute, Artisan Baker, Restaurant & Cafe Consultant and Owner of A.Pastry Shop
All articlesFor this special Veganuary edition of Meet The Bakers, we bring you to Glasgow’s trendy Southside, a community home to many artisanal bakeries, including the vegan and vegetarian friendly, A.Pastry Shop. Keep reading to find out more about their beloved pastry creations and gain insight into the strategy behind their success.
Meet the Bakers spoke with Agne Petroseviciute about her journey as owner of A.Pastry Shop
AP: I am the founder of ‘A.Pastry Shop’, a small neighbourhood bakery in Cathcart, in the Southside of Glasgow. I have four staff members, two full-time bakers and two part-time baristas.
We specialise in making outstanding vegan and vegetarian pastries and cakes.
I have been making pastry for over 17 years, working in various bakeries and restaurants in Lithuania, Sweden, Denmark, Edinburgh and finally in Glasgow and I have always dreamt of opening my own bakery.
When Covid hit in 2020, like many others I was furloughed from my job. As always, I baked my way through adversity and started selling pastries from my flat and I soon went from having a few neighbours collect pastry boxes at my door, to supplying cafes across the Southside. The business grew so much I was able to move into my own space after just over a year and A.Pastry Shop was born. My dream had come true!
Since opening in 2021, we have baked thousands of croissants, buns, empire biscuits, and cakes for our local community and we have also become suppliers to over fifteen small cafes in Glasgow, operating seven days a week!
MTB: What are the main changes that you have seen in the industry from when you started out and now? AP: Since I moved to Scotland in 2009, one of the most positive changes in our industry is that people increasingly appreciate how baking is a craft and is something to be valued. In turn we feel more valued as bakers than we have before. No one is in this job for the money, but we all do feel a sense of pride in what we are doing, and the appreciation we are shown, by our customers means so much to us.
A negative change is how much the price of ingredients have increased since I started out in the industry and even though people do appreciate baking as a craft, there is still a limit to how much we can charge our customers. People are not going to pay £5 for a pastry, no matter how much they appreciate what we do.
A.Pastry’s customers are drawn in not just by amazing plant-based treats but by appreciation of their craft
MTB: Tell us about your product range AP: We are a vegan and vegetarian bakery. We do still make some traditional bakes like Victoria Sponges etc, but 80% of our products are vegan.
We sell the classics including Empire Biscuits, Cinnamon Buns, Plain and Fruit Scones, Brownies and much more! Some of our popular bakes are our amazing Blueberry and Yoghurt Scones that customers absolutely love, and our vegan Brownies are popular, especially our new Caramel and Pretzel Brownies.
Customers can order and buy birthday cakes online and in store and we offer outside catering for small and large functions, including sandwiches, vegan sausage rolls, cookies, biscuits and more.
AP: Our bestselling bakes are our Cinnamon Buns, and they are by far the most popular product we sell. They have a lovely buttery flavour, and for the glaze we use a real vanilla paste from London. This elevates the humble Cinnamon Bun to another level!
Our scrumptious, melt in the mouth vegan Empire Biscuit is also a good seller and is made with BBMF Plant-Based butter from BAKO. We have the classic Empire with raspberry jam, and then we have special options including the lemon meringue Empire - filled with lemon curd and topped with icing and vegan marshmallows.
We are now working on a vegan shortbread recipe that we hope to launch in January, for Veganuary. We will have a classic recipe and then additional options including chamomile shortbread and white chocolate shortbread.
MTB: How do you feel about the state of the industry today from a baker’s perspective? AP: Right now, it is an up-hill battle. I knew that running my own bakery was going to be hard work. When I was managing bakeries, I saw the amazing work my bosses put into every day but I did not realise quite how hard it actually is; in particular with the issues with prices that we are all facing.
The cost of our ingredients has shot up by 100% – a bag of sugar, that cost us £14.52 a year ago, is now setting us back £28.40 – and our energy bills, staffing and rent have also increased.
We always knew the first few years of our business would be the toughest, but these extra challenges have pushed our beloved bakery to the brink on more than one occasion. Several local bakeries and cafes in the area have been forced to close recently. This both saddened and shocked us as we don’t see them as competitors, but rather as part of the vibrant and caring Southside community.
AP: The cost-of-living crisis is the main issue affecting everybody. I am nervous about January, February and March, when people are feeling the effect of Christmas spending. Business is going to be extremely tough for all bakers then.
I am planning to offer more delivered vegan bakes, to be distributed across the UK, to help us to get through the lean months ahead, and I will be doing even more marketing, in particular on social media.
AP: I really like the products that BAKO offer, I have a great delivery man, he is really friendly, and the people who take care of my account are amazing.
AP: If a baker is starting out today my advice would be to travel around and work in different bakeries. Be curious, see what other people are baking, and find out what really happens behind the scenes.
I would also emphasise that social media is very important. We started putting more time and money into social media, and we have a dedicated member of the team running all of our social media platforms. Since we invested in this resource, we have seen some really great results.
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