From working out of a small community kitchen to opening their Brisbane-based HQ earlier this year, Sprout Artisan Bakery has definitely been on a journey over the past decade. Baking Business caught up with owners Rebecca Foley and Lutz Richter to hear all about it.

They say all the best businesses have a solid story behind them, and Brisbane’s Sprout Artisan Bakery definitely ticks that box.

The brainchild of German-born baker and pastry chef Lutz Richter and his partner in business – and life – Rebecca Foley, Sprout Artisan Bakery was born when the duo began producing a range for markets out of the Food Connect kitchen in Salisbury, on Brisbane’s southside.

The high quality of their products was quickly noticed, and it wasn’t long before production was ramped up to include a wholesaling arm for restaurants likes Merriweather, Sourced, Botanica and Felix for Goodness.

Rebecca said although it was a positive start to their business, it also meant she and Lutz were spending 10 to 12 hours each day in the kitchen.

“I had worked in sales previously… but this was crazy. We’d go home and have a couple of hours sleep and then come back to the kitchen,” she said.

“Then I fell pregnant and I was working in the kitchen until I was nine months pregnant to support Lutz’s dream. It took off so quickly that we both weren’t quite ready. We didn’t have a plan. It was Lutz’s passion, I was just following along, trying to make it happen.”

Lutz at work in the bakery

Humble beginnings

Starting with a stall at the Eagle Farm Markets, which Lutz said they soon realised wasn’t quite the right fit, they soon relocated Sprout Artisan Bakery to the larger Rocklea Markets following an invitation from the market’s owner.

Their sales soared immediately. Lutz said the market saw an average of 5000 people come through each weekend, and they were servicing about 10 per cent of that number.

However, with this success came an even higher demand for their products and it quickly became obvious they needed a larger production kitchen.

“We were just not growing at the Food Connect kitchen anymore; we needed a bigger space. We had a contact who offered us a kitchen that was five times bigger than the one we were operating out of. Here we were rocking up with our really small equipment trying to fill that really large kitchen,” Lutz said.

“We continued on with wholesale and markets for quite a while until an opportunity on Robertson Street in Newstead came up where we could host a pop-up. That was our first retail outlet.”

Rebecca added that their consumer base had grown to the point where they couldn’t step away from the market.

“If we didn’t show up one Saturday we’d just be inundated. Everyone was so supportive of us. They followed our whole journey – they saw us pregnant at the market and saw us have two children. But we really wanted to expand into retail.”

Far from being a snap decision, Lutz and Rebecca had already spent years doing market research, scouting a number of areas and keeping an eye on the retailers that had opened and closed. With this information in their back pocket, Lutz and Rebeca said they were confident Sprout Artisan Bakery would be well received in the upmarket suburb of Newstead or on ritzy retail street James Street.

Following Sprout Artisan Bakery’s successful pop-up, Rebecca and Lutz pitched Melbourne food hospitality group Zagame’s for the opportunity to take over the tenancy of a James Street retail space.

“[Initially] they were like ‘we don’t want to do food, we just want to do a pop-up’. So I sent a pitch deck to them and they came back and said, ‘absolutely. We want to give you guys a chance’,” Rebecca said.

“It was very low key, but our customers didn’t care. It gave us our first start. And Lutz doesn’t take any shortcuts. He’s very precise and quite a perfectionist in his craft.”

Sprout Artisan Bakery is renowned for its great bread

A wealth of experience

Lutz, in fact, brings large star power to his craft. After beginning his apprenticeship in his native Germany at 16, he also spent a three-year stint in Ireland working as a pastry chef at the boutique Clarence Hotel, which at the time was owned by Bono and The Edge from the band U2, before relocating to Australia in time for the Sydney 2000 Olympics.“I’ve spent 25 years now in Australia and I worked in a lot of places. I worked in hotels and restaurants. I was a pastry chef at the Sheraton Hotel in Sydney,” Lutz said.

Over the past five years Rebecca said the business had evolved in terms of product and variety. New ideas were implemented, including a coffee and beverage range, as well as sandwiches that Sprout Artisan Bakery became well known for.

This year has seen Rebecca and Lutz take the next step, when they officially opened the doors to the newly finished Sprout Artisan Bakery headquarters.

The new HQ is located in the niche Craft’d Grounds precinct, created by Brisbane builder James Rennell in partnership with architects Conrad Gargett. The area began as a boutique coffee shop and has since expanded to include a range of businesses like Brewtide Brewery, Collingwood Black Espresso + Bar, Seven Miles Coffee Roasters, and restaurants like The Black Brisbane, K.I.S.S Burgers, and Herve’s Restaurant & Bar.

Initial conversations between Rebecca, Lutz and James had been centred around an onsite kiosk, but soon extended to an invitation to open a larger scale business.

“We had been in talks with another landlord in Newstead and had designed a space that was around 350sq m. We had committed financially to the designs but they couldn’t get the required power for the site,” Rebecca said.

“James said, ‘look, you might not have considered this but I can definitely get you the power and I’d really love to have you here on a bigger scale’.”

Rebecca and Lutz took over a retail space they described as an empty shell and set to work designing their ideal space. Just six months later they were set to go.

Lutz with one of the sweet creations

A new HQ

With a strong focus on both retail and wholesale, the new Sprout Artisan Bakery site invites customers to take a glimpse at the inner workings of the bakery.

“Lutz had always dreamed about having a production space that was attached to retail so you could really extend on that conversation with customers,” Rebecca said.

“We’d always wanted to welcome people in a little bit behind the scenes and say this is how your bread’s made, this is how lamination works, and actually show them how much of a labour intensive process it is.

“People can walk past at night and see the bakers from the street and, when you come in the space – which is a really cavernous kind of warehouse – you can see through the window and watch on.”

Just months after first opening its doors Sprout Artisan Bakery has already been incredibly well received by its local community, and Rebecca and Lutz said the next few months were looking bright.

“It’s almost busier here than at James Street. It’s been wild,” Rebecca said.

“The first couple of weekends we didn’t know the numbers or how much we could sell. One Sunday morning we sold out by 9.30am and on other Saturdays and Sundays we have sold out by 10am or 11am,” Lutz added.

With a solid product range centred around high-quality sourdough breads – which are then used in-house to make toasties and sandwiches – and laminated croissants, it’s not surprising it’s been difficult to keep up with consumer demand.

Throughout the years Lutz and his team have remained focused on three elements: each product has to be classic, simple and tasty, and this has been really cemented in their new HQ.

“It has to look good and taste really good,” he said.

“We are who we are, and if we are doing something then it’s got to be good.”