Family-owned small business Crafty Cakes has opened its third establishment in Nausori, extending its offering of a wide variety of pastries and cakes to customers in the greater Tailevu, Naitasiri, Rewa and surrounding areas.
This is the latest investment by couple Alka Ranjani and Suneet Prakash, following the success and growth of its first outlet in Nadera and the second in Nabua.
The Fiji Times has established that the couple had invested a total of $150,000 altogether in the three outlets, and employs six people – two in every shop.
In an interview, the couple said their business today started out as a hobby, and later developed into a home-based online business with positive feedbacks from customers.
“We were home bakers where this was a hobby that we turned into a business. She’s really good at baking and I did the decoration for the cakes she baked, but most of our recipes is perfected by her,” Mr Prakash said.
He said they had to expand their reach as their customer base grew.
“After selling online for two years, people liked our cakes and that’s what made us open our first shop in Nadera,” they said.
“After receiving positive remarks for Nadera and then we expanded our branch to Nabua, so that was our second outlet which we opened last year. This branch we’re opening now in Hemron Plaza (Nausori) becomes our third establishment for our business.”
At the opening last Saturday, the entrepreneurs said the cakes offered at their various locations were recipes curated through home baking, and they had also introduced healthier versions such as gluten and sugar free cakes.
“Our next plan is to expand the shop to other locations so that people have easier accessibility to cakes, expand on our product line in terms of new flavours and at the same time, maintaining our quality of cakes.”
Mr Prakash said as the business grows and expanded, there will be more employment opportunities, in particular for bakers and delivery drivers.
Crafty Cakes offer cakes for all occasions – birthdays, engagements and weddings.
Flavours range from chocolate, strawberry, lemon, vanilla, chocolate–strawberry marble and even forest lines – black forest, white forest, tiramisu, cheesecake and the popular photo cakes with edible prints.
