Batam Baguettes provides quality European bread made from Indonesian ingredients.
James from the UK and Susie from Indonesia are married and are the founders of Batam Baguettes that provide European bread in Indonesia.

- Could you introduce your business?

We are a small cafe bakery in Batam that started in 2015 and now coming up to be six years. Our main product is hand-made bread. We are producing European bread from 95% Indonesian ingredients, including cheese, and now we have a 50% share of European bread in Indonesia. 

Because people step by step started to understand the importance of natural healthy food, we are becoming more famous.

We have just one store, but we are looking to open another store.

- Why did you start a business?

In 2014, we decided to have a small family business. In Batam, Indonesia, it was difficult for foreigners like me to find good quality bread. The bread in Indonesia is sweet and there were a lot of foreigners who would like to have Siberia bread, etc. So I suggested to my wife that we open such a cafe because I had some experience in the restaurant in the UK, including making bread. Then, I started preparing pieces of equipment, such as an oven, mixers, and we started producing our own bread. It was not an easy journey, we had some ups and downs, but finally, we had a breakthrough after 2-3 years. If you search on Google, you will find that the Batam is famous for its good quality bread and service. 

- How did you go through the first two years?

When I felt difficulties and said "It has not been working, let's give up", my wife said, "No, we have to try longer". And another year, my wife said "OK enough. Maybe we should give." and I said, "No, we just broke through. We have to continue." 

As we were a small family business, it has ups and downs, but we have rewards at least financially. We are not like a McDonald's, but we have now around 10 employees, the brand is known, and people know that we give good quality bread.

- Why do you use Loyverse?

We tried several systems before using Loyverse. We have been using Loyverse for 3 or 4 years now and we feel It’s very good. We can monitor sales, stock, and which item we are selling the most. We also use the premium feature of Employee Management to manage 10 staff, to enable them to log in to POS and check employee's records. Those records are also used to decide if we hire them or not. It is how we use Loyverse.

We also use two Kitchen Display systems and a printer. They work very well. The kitchen orders come to the two different kitchens.

We had another POS system before, but it was not as good as Loyverse. We couldn't get information from it as clearly as we can get from Loyverse. When I tried Loyverse, I realized that it is much easier for us to track sales by using the Dashboard app. The Dashboard app is installed on my phone and my wife’s, so even though I’m not here, I can keep track of the application. It's very good that I can monitor daily how the sales are going.

I think Loyverse lets us concentrate on what we are doing, which is the bread and the service. We don't need to care so much about sales and keeping track of everything. It's very worth using Loyverse.

Here is a Loyverse on the counter.

Here, we have a kitchen display system for sandwiches.

We have another KDS in the 2nd kitchen.

- Do you have any words for new entrepreneurs?

You have to be determined. Even when it gets tough, you have to keep it ongoing.

Don't lose the track of "who you are" and "What you are". And your brand from the beginning is "Who you are". Maybe in 1-2 years, you would start to doubt yourself, but don't stop. keep going. Don't try to change who you are. And do your best. 

- Thank you so much.