Rising demand for Irish-made French-style baked goods

Armelle Siomboing is a French baker living in Ireland with her Scottish husband Kenny Rorie. They own Armelle's Kitchen in Kilcullen Co Kildare.They have also recently secured a Friday to Sunday shop in The Tramyard, Dalkey, to sell their French-style baked goods.

What distinguishes your business from your competitors?

Probably the fact that what we do is mostly French. We try to stay away a bit more from the typical Irish baking and Irish cooking just to be different.

What has been the biggest challenge you have had to face?

I wouldn’t say there is one thing as such. Growing the business, answering demands and being able to please everybody are probably the biggest challenges. Especially when it comes to food, everybody has different tastes.

What’s your major success to date?

So far it's obviously the opening of the second shop in Dalkey. We used to do the market there and then we stopped for a while. Dave Coulson from The Tramyard rang in January to tell us the shop here was going to be available. We said sure we'd come and take a look, we couldn't say no then. It's still early days, but so far we are very happy.

What could the Government do to help SMEs ?

There’s a couple of things. The one thing we seem to hear quite a lot is about the broadband coverage around the country: that seems to be a big problem for some people.

For us, a big step was to take on our first employee but there were no grants, nothing for us to get a reduction in the wage we could pay or any help. We couldn’t apply for Job Bridge, as you have to have at least one full-time employee already.

Do you think that the banks are open for business?

They are, yes and no. We don’t really like the way they are going to machines rather than people nowadays. They are losing out a bit on the human side of the business. Just like we have our regular customers, we should be regulars in the bank and we don’t get that anymore.

What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in business?

I don’t think we have one big mistake, it’s more little things along the way that we’re learning from, little things we realise as we go we could have done better.

Whom do you admire in business and why?

The reason I started the business in the first place is because of my dad. He’s the one who used to bake for special occasions in the house, even though he was working in a completely different area.

He started working at 14 in the Exxon factory at the very lowest level; at his retirement he was in charge of his whole department. That’s the way we are trying to work the business, to keep going and keep growing.

What’s the best piece of business advice that you’ve ever received?

If the business doesn’t grow, it more or less goes backwards.

How do you see the short- term future for your business?

Well, obviously growing more in Dalkey. Over the summertime we like to do extra festivals and extra events when we can. Maybe shop number three next year.

What’s your business worth and would you sell it?

I wouldn’t sell it. We like it too much to be selling it really.