The Nigerian sweet bread baked and sold by Amazing Bakery in London has built a steady, growing customer following here.

But owner Funmi Ogunshote wants to take her business to another level.

Her small bakery on Blue Heron Drive fired up its ovens in 2020 baking 32 loaves a day. Now, she bakes 180 a day and the goal is 360 a day by the end of the year.

For help to make that happen, she turned to the London Small Business Centre and its Foodpreneur Advantage program, which recently launched its newest session.

“I recommend it to anyone who wants to start a small business. It has helped me understand what it takes to make a business more profitable,” Ogunshote said.

The Foodpreneur Advantage program has two sessions:

Regular, free webinars where food entrepreneurs and anyone else get advice on the nuts and bolts of starting a small business

A “scale-up” program for about 24 people to help existing small businesses get to the next level.

“What we love about the program is it taps into the growing trend of people's love for food. And consumers want variety, they want to know where their food is coming from,” said Steve Pellarin, executive director of the small business centre.

“The timing is right and now we can provide additional guidance for these programs.”

Foodpreneur Advantage offers “a little bit of everything” in how to start and grow a small business, from product development, to sales and marketing to understanding food safety guidelines and coping with human resource challenges, to name a few of the topics, he said.

The centre has been offering food business development programs for six years, but Foodpreneur Advantage takes it to a new level, thanks to support from The Grove, an agri-food development hub at Western Fair District, which gave $50,000 to the program, and a $40,000 grant from the Libro credit union.

That funding has allowed for more programs to be offered and more experts to be hired.

“It has exposed me to professionals so I can expand my business, and I am working with people now getting help with marketing,” said Ogunshote, who graduated from the scale-up program.

Last year about 350 people participated, and this year about 300 will take part as the spring session begins, said Pellarin.

The London centre partnered with other business support programs in the region and advises business owners in Windsor, Chatham-kent and Elgin and Essex counties as well as London and Middlesex.

The Foodpreneur webinar topics include: starting a food business, selling a product, costing and pricing to make a profit, marketing and branding, labelling and packaging, and dealing with regulatory compliances.

The scale-up program takes place over 10 weeks, offering access to 10 industry experts, workshops and discussions with peers.

It focuses on issues challenging food businesses, such as food safety regulations, labelling regulations, connecting with buyers and distributors, pitching products to national chains, product development and selling to retailers.

Businesses can get grants of up to $5,000 to help kickstart that growth.

As for Amazing Bakery, its products are sold in six stores in London and four in Hamilton, St. Catharines and Windsor, but Ogunshote wants to widen her customer base.

She sells a sweet, white bread popular in Nigeria, where she is from, as well as sweet rolls and coconut bread and will make pastries, chicken pie and sausage rolls on order.

“I am in a better position to make decisions now in terms of profitability and productivity,” Ogunshote said of what she has learned through Foodpreneur Advantage.