Graham's Bakery gets prestigious `Arch of Europe' awards
by Linda Rutherford
LOCAL baker, Mr Albert Watson, did Guyana proud recently when his firm, Graham's Bakery, was selected to be one of this year's recipients of the prestigious `Arch of Europe' awards. These awards, which are in recognition of quality and excellence, are offered each year to companies operating in the areas of banking, aviation, automobile and heavy vehicle manufacture, agriculture, civil engineering, mining, telecommunications, food and beverage, fashion and jewellery designing and the manufacture of furniture, among others. The award programme is spearheaded by Business Initiative Directions (BID) and JBAN (Joint Business Assessment Network), a quality research and corporate communications consortium based in Madrid, Spain. Both Watson and his wife, Leonie, flew to France for the 26th annual `Arch of Europe' Awards Ceremony held on March 6, at the Hotel Concorde La Fayette, in Paris. Though they have travelled extensively, it was the first time either of them had ever been to Paris. Besides a trophy, Watson also received a diploma and a number of other mementoes, some of which can also be used in promoting his product, to remind him of the event. To this day, said Watson, who has been in the bakery business for the past 37 years, he is still mystified as to how he was nominated for the award. According to a letter from BID Director of Foreign Relations, Mr Julio Montero, apprising him of his good fortune and advising on travel arrangements, "information obtained about companies awarded by JBAN and BID corresponds with external actions as well as an on-line poll" and is governed by such criteria as: * Customer satisfaction * Communication strategies * Bench-marking * Information and data analysis * Leadership * Planning and decision making, among others. Selection can also be based on information obtained through the consortium's international structure of business communications experts, among them engineers, physicists, mathematicians, economists, psychologists, journalists, designers and architects, to mention just a few. In the case of Graham's, which Watson has had since 1988, Montero said though BID was unable to carry out its mandatory internal audit in the evaluation of quality and excellence, the information garnered on the company through other sources was enough to convince the selection committee of its eligibility for the award. Asked about his initial reaction upon learning that he was to receive this prestigious international award, Watson said: "I was very, very happy. I felt it was some kind of reward for having worked 37 years in the industry [and] having put all my effort into it". Admitting to being skeptical at first about the existence and authenticity of the consortium, Watson said that it was not until a friend found information on it on the internet that he was able to rest easy. The eldest of nine children, Watson said he learnt his trade from his father, Mr Bertie Watson, who once ran a thriving bakery at Howes and Charles Streets, in Charlestown. "He was a professional baker; well experienced and I learnt a lot from him," said Watson of his father. He also had the privilege of working with several other established city bakeries like Fung's, Tang's and Williams, but never Graham's. He began by renting the premises in 1979 when old Mr Graham, who is still alive and is in his mid-90s, got too old to run the business. When he bought him out in 1988, Watson said, it was with the understanding that he would retain the name, which he thought was a good idea, after all, since the name Graham's Bakery had a lot of goodwill going for it. Recalling the days when wheaten flour was banned in this country, Watson said though times were crucial back then and he was often forced to close his business, he is yet thankful that he was able to survive when others had gone under. Those were the days, he recalled, when people queued up in long lines at the side of the bakery to get a loaf or two of bread. The embargo, he said, lasted from May 1982 till September 1986. While at first, he could have worked only when he got flour, he said things became rather easy after a time. This was largely due to a preferential arrangement bakers had with the then Customs and Excise Department whereby they were allowed to purchase flour seized from contraband merchants. "Of course, in those days you could have been charged for contraband ... but we only purchased what could work in one day," he said, and that was five to ten bags, depending on how stocks ran. Now, he works between 30 to 50 bags per day, though demand tends to vary from day to day. For him, Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays are peak days. In addition to the bakery on Cummings Street, he also has about 12 retail outlets countrywide, in places like East, West and North Ruimveldt, Kitty, on the East Coast and East Bank, and in West Demerara. He also goes to Linden every Sunday and has a distributor who works the Essequibo Coast and Islands four times a week. Staff, which at present stands at 14, includes a head baker, who has been with him for past two years. Noting that the baking industry is one which carries a high turn-over, Watson said this tendency can, at times, affect quality. He counters this with guidelines and training. Speaking about the various types of bread and whether he had any plans of going that route given current trends with globalisation and tourism practically at our door, Watson said while there is nothing that is done abroad in the line of bread that cannot be done here, at the end of the day, it all comes down to demand. Recalling a time when there was a demand for baguettes (the long French bread), Watson said this was around 1990 when there were certain people in the diplomatic corps. When they left, however, that demand slackened and never picked back up until he phased baguettes out altogether. The same thing happened with rye bread, he said. But, always an optimist, he is confident that things will pick up when once tourism really gets off the ground here. He said he learnt to make baguettes on one of his several trips to England, noting that there is a special way to bake it, which involves inducing steam when it is half way through to give it that golden crust. Since his trip to Paris, he has already been to England for the biennial `Food and Bake Exhibition' usually in the city of Birmingham.
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