Introducing a hospital bakery project in Oyugis, Homabay County
This was going to be our first hospital bakery project. It all started when we received a call from the management of Matata Hospital in Oyugis. They were very clear on the objectives they had for establishing the bakery. One of the main reasons was to provide patients housed at the facility with fresh bread and cakes
The planning stage
At the crack of dawn the following day, our technical team left for Oyugis. They included our senior technician and master baker. When they arrived at the hospital it was clear the bakery could not be housed in the hospital compound. There was no space.
So we advised the client to rent a premises adjacent to the hospital. We actually found enough size of premises to accommodate both the store and the production area.
We did the layout of the equipment and advised their technician on wiring standards to be followed. Then we did the plumbing for the proofer.
Baking equipment capacity
We calculated the total number of loaves needed for the hospital. This was about 600pcs daily. We also estimated that we require another 500pcs to sell directly to the community. Additionally 500 packets of buns, scones, and cakes. This comes to a total of 1500 packets.
For this production, we advised a convection oven with 12 trays. This is because it can do 192 loaves per hour and it would produce a total of 2000 loaves or packets in 10 hours.
We also added a spiral mixer of 60kg, a bread slicer, and a proofer. Stainless steel tables and baking tins were also included.
Our team installed the equipment and trained their bakers and the project was such a big success.
Benefits of a commercial convection oven
1. Consumes very less energy. In one hour it produces 190 loaves but only consumes 5 units of power. This is equivalent to Kes 1.00 per loaf. This is the lowest baking cost per loaf in Kenya today.
2. The oven is equipped with steam. This allows the production of soft, golden-brown products
3. The Matata Hospital Bakery Project was a big success. The Hospital was able to cut its costs by almost 50% on bread purchases. It was also able to make more profit by selling extra excess of 1000 loaves per day.