Njabulo Sithole of Bakers Creationz is justly proud of winning the Durban Chamber Entrepreneur 2015
Competition. He said, “I take it as recognition for the hard work that I have put into my business.” His quality cakes are on a par with many other high end products.

Sithole started his baking career while living and working in London in a communal house.  From admitting to hating cooking for himself and existing on bread for breakfast, lunch and dinner, he then had cooking duties to perform for his housemates.  Sithole soon found that he was the best cook in the house and from there his passion grew. He was initially self-taught and relied on television cooking shows to
nurture his culinary skills.

As a cake lover he often found that shop bought cakes did not satisfy his needs. He knew that he could tweak recipes to obtain better results. He said, “As a cake lover I was the best taster for my products.” Sithole started baking for his supportive family and friends who were soon placing more orders.

At this point he realised that baking had the potential to become a real business rather that a part time interest. Using his knowledge of research, development and marketing, he decided to develop products that would fulfill a market niche. His dream was to own a bakery.

Initially his cooking was done in his home kitchen, baking 12 cupcakes at a time in a small oven. These he gave to school children and members of the community to sell on a commission basis. However, soon the schools and community were sending in orders for functions. Sithole said, “I often went a whole weekend without sleep as I would need to fill four or five 20 litre containers. I was also trying to save as much money as possible in order to buy additional
equipment.”

At first obtaining finance was a challenge but over time Sithole has seen his dream come true. He is now the owner of a fully equipped and HACCP compliant bakery located in Mphephetheni, a rural area near the Inanda Dam, in KwaZulu-Natal. Bakers Creationz has been in existence for just over a year, in this period the company has managed to get listed with major retail stores including Spar and Inanda Cash
and Carry and the Ohlanga group. Sithole is seeing his orders grow and is preparing to supply new customers more products in the new year.