April’s Bakery grew and became known as one of the first Hong Kong pork pies in Thailand. After that, it expanded its wings and sold products in 7-Eleven, added a product line of cakes and other bakery products, upsized the SME brand to be bigger, and soon it will be a billion-baht bakery brand!

How has April's Bakery's 15-year journey been? Positioning will take you to get to know it.

A flight attendant turns to making red pork pies.

April’s Bakery was founded by “On – Kanokkan Mathuraporn”, the brand owner who loves baking. She named the brand April’s Bakery because she was born in April. The company name Singha Foods Industries (Thailand) Co., Ltd. comes from her 3 children (out of 4) who were also born in August.

Kanokkan started her career as a flight attendant for EVA Air for 3 years, but since it was a 3-year contract, she thought it would be better to start her own business. At that time, she had some savings, around 700,000 baht, and invested in opening a 15-square-meter coffee shop at CDC shopping center. She made her own pastries at home, but since Kanokkan didn't drink coffee, the taste might not be as good as other shops, and she misjudged the market, which led to poor sales and the need to close.

Then in 2010, Kanokkan started April's Bakery when she was 26 years old when she had the chance to go to Hong Kong and found a roast pork pie shop. It was a secret shop that was popular among Thai people. You could say that every Thai person who went there had to order one. So she realized that at that time, there was no Hong Kong roast pork pie like this in Thailand, so she adjusted the recipe to suit Thai tastes, with a thin crust and thick filling.

“When I quit being a flight attendant, I had 700,000 baht in cash. I opened a 15-square-meter cafe at CDC. I thought that if I earned 40,000 baht as a flight attendant, if I could sell 40,000 baht worth of coffee, I would be able to survive. At that time, I also sold bread and cakes, but I wasn’t very successful. Some days, I could sell 200-400 baht. I kept eating meat, but I kept fighting. I added chairs and stretchers to attract customers, but it didn’t work out. Then, the first turning point was when I had the opportunity to sell my pastries in a shopping mall. I sold general pastries. At first, I sold 27,000 baht a day, but after a few days, my sales dropped. The center told me to find a new product, so I started selling roast pork pies, which I made myself every day. I was confident that they would sell well and I would never get tired of eating them, so I started selling them from then on.”

Enter 7-Eleven, the company's upscaling turning point

After that, April’s Bakery expanded its branches to shopping malls. Its main product was still pies with various fillings. It had been through many ups and downs, and had gone through many trials and errors. Until 2019, it began selling its products in 7-Eleven, starting with its beloved product, the Red Pork Pie. However, sales were not as good as they should have been because customers did not understand the fact that the pie was in the refrigerator and had to be reheated. Therefore, it developed other products until it settled on the “Salted Egg Lava Pie”, which is a bestseller.

Kanokkan sees entering 7-Eleven as an important opportunity in many ways. It helps with sales and changes the size of the company from a small SME to a medium-sized one. People will know the brand more. If anyone asks if selling in 7-Eleven is risky, I personally think it is not risky because 7-Eleven has helped a lot.

When it was launched in 7-Eleven, it had to develop new products in other bakery groups, such as Chinese pastries, various cakes, and trendy snacks, because it had to target the mass target group and had to make the price accessible, mostly no more than 39 baht.

Currently, there are 18 products sold in 7-Eleven, with many new items and many items being removed. The top 3 best-selling products are Dubai Chocolate, Salted Egg Lava Pie, and Smash Cake.

Almost fell asleep, but came back because of “Dubai Chocolate”.

Up until this year, April’s Bakery has been a partner with 7-Eleven for 5 years. There were periods of sales that went up and down according to the trend, but in early 2024, the company started to face problems with the economy taking its toll, with consumers having less purchasing power, causing sales to fall short of the target. But then, at the end of the year, “Dubai Chocolate” became a hero, with an extremely affordable price of 39 baht, making this product a viral hit that people were searching for all over Thailand. Both the criticism that it was not delicious and the search for it helped drive sales to skyrocket, and also allowed the company to grow as targeted.

“At the end of last year, we hit the right spot with consumers by releasing Dubai chocolate, which became a hit on social media. Normally, we would sell 50,000-70,000 pieces per day, but now we have sold 150,000 pieces. Just Dubai chocolate alone, 70,000 pieces.

We saw the trend, watched the clip, and thought up the recipe ourselves. We proposed it to 7-Eleven. After testing it for a while, it was able to be sold within 1 month. Actually, at that time, it was already towards the end of the trend, but because it was a hard-to-find product and expensive, when we released it at 39 baht, it became a trend again.”

Higher costs, keep it under 39 baht

Dubai chocolate has been trending for a while, with pre-orders from Korea and large bakeries making them for sale. However, most of them are priced from hundreds to thousands because the ingredients include chocolate and pistachios, which are notoriously expensive.

April’s Bakery saw the trend but wanted to make it affordable. Especially when sold at 7-Eleven, the price must be reasonable. 7-Eleven has a price guide that says the price should not exceed 39 baht to be sold. If it is higher than that, it will be difficult to sell.

But with the price of raw materials continuously increasing, especially cocoa or chocolate which has increased by 400%, the factory has also increased the price. But Kanokkan said that at the moment, the cost is still controlled because they use the method of ordering large lots in advance, which gives them the same price. But if the stock runs out, they may use the method of reducing the size but the price is the same.

“Right now, factories that order raw materials have actually increased their prices, but they will use the method of ordering in advance, ordering large lots, and keeping a deposit for the whole year, which allows them to maintain sales and control costs. However, if the stock runs out, they may talk to 7-Eleven about reducing the size, but keeping the same price. Because if the price increases by just 2 baht, sales will immediately drop. Even if they go back to selling at the same price, sales will not be the same.”

Kanokkan knows that Dubai chocolate is a trendy product, or it could be called a fashion product. When the trend ends, sales will decrease according to popularity, which is a risk. But she said that she has already planned to release a trendy product to replace Dubai chocolate. Now that she is here, she definitely can't delay.

Paving the way to a billion-dollar brand

Now April’s Bakery has been in business for 15 years. Kanokkan said that the hardest time was when it made its first 100 million baht in revenue because it had to use a lot of its own capital. In the beginning, banks did not lend, so they used various assets to turn money around. When they had revenue, the banks started to give them more opportunities for loans.

“In the past, there were many times when I felt discouraged and wanted to quit many times. Sometimes I didn’t have enough money to pay for my investment. But I learned that life is a life cycle. If you can endure it, good things will come.”

In 2024, the total revenue from all distribution channels was 630 million baht, an increase of 20% from the previous year. Revenue was divided into 80% through 7-Eleven, 15% from freshly baked pies in stores, and 5% from general stores.

The 7-Eleven channel has set a target of more than 20 new products, or an average of 2 products per month.

In addition, a growth target of 20% per year is set, with an expected revenue of 1 billion baht by the end of this year.

“We have a figure of how much we should get per month for a billion divided by 12 months. Since the beginning of the year, we have achieved our target. If we can maintain sales, we can reach a billion this year. If Dubai chocolate sales drop, we will prepare to bring in other products to replace them. If we are going to play in the fashion market, we cannot afford to be slow. Once we step into this, we cannot back down. If we just sell pies and Chinese pastries as our main products, sales will not be as high as this. However, we try to give equal importance to both.”

In addition, Kanokkan has also expanded by purchasing 10 rai of land in Chiang Mai to make a cocoa garden, expanding into making chocolate desserts. To further reinforce the brand story as a chocolate expert.

“April’s Bakery’s dream is to create a global bakery brand. When I first started the brand, I dreamed of being like Coffee Beans by Dao. When I grew up a bit, I wanted to be like S&P, which has many chain stores. This year, I started planning to do more roadshows abroad.”