Kate Vallabh
Operations manager
Tonga
The secret ingredient at a Tongan family bakery is love. A ball that started rolling more than a century ago, Cowley Bakery is now in the hands of Tongan bakery operations manager Kate Vallabh. It’s clear that for Vallabh, Cowley Bakery isn’t just a business, it’s a storehouse of memories of her family, connections to customers, and the family’s role in providing affordable food for Tongans for 131 years.
“Being here on the floor gives me memories of working alongside my late father (Alfred Cowley, who passed away in 2023). The production floor was his happy place and he took so much pride in his work and his product.
“It meant so much to him that he was providing a service to our Tongans, and that his product ended up in most of the Tongan homes,” Vallabh says.
The eldest daughter of Alfred and Atiu Cowley, Kate was sent to university in New Zealand. After graduating, she returned home and asked to join the family bakery in 2012.
“We feel connected to this place because it provided a roof for us, it enabled us to be educated overseas, which we never took for granted because we knew that back here they were working very hard to bake a humble loaf in order to give us that life. Now we’re able to do that for the families that are still with us,” she says.
It took a dozen years for Vallabh to work her way up into her role as operations manager. “I remember moving back here in 2012 and asking my father if I could come and work for him. I thought being the boss’s daughter I would end up sitting in the office or somewhere in administration but he said, ‘Well, you can go down and start with slicing bread’. So I started with slicing bread and I’ve packed burgers, I’ve been on the production floor, I’ve served customers in the shop. At the time, I didn’t appreciate it, but now I see that it was probably the greatest gift that he gave us was to know and understand every aspect of our business and to appreciate the job that we do, and appreciate our customers.”
Vallabh works with her mother, Atiu, brother Francis, and sister Aretha at the bakery. “It’s still at the very heart how it started – a family business. “My brother and sister and I are fifth generation.”
When the first Alfred Cowley launched his bakery back in 1893, bread was the only product coming out of the oven. Years later, Vallabh’s grandparents encouraged her parents to expand the range to include pies, pastries, cakes, sweets and celebration cakes. These days, the bakery is always trying to produce new products to satisfy the ever-changing tastes of locals and visitors.
Just as the dough rises each day, the company seems to grow each year. It has now opened 10 outlets to service the western and eastern districts of Tonga. Aretha manages the wholesale side, which includes manufacturing for Fonterra New Zealand, Tip Top and Bakels. A new branch of the company is getting into shipping. Despite the changes, the core value of serving their community stays the same.
“We take pride in everything we do. We bake as if we’re doing it for someone that we love. We also serve everyone how we would like to be treated,” Vallabh says.
While price increases from their suppliers pose a challenge for the bakery, it’s important to them to try to keep their products affordable, she says. “You will see a group of students all sharing the one bread. It’s affordable and that’s what we strive to keep. As hard as it is with price fluctuations, just keeping that loaf price that kids from across the road can afford if they haven’t had breakfast, they can come and break a loaf and share it together.”
Vallabh’s advice to other women in business is to have faith in small steps. “Don’t be afraid to work from the ground up. There are always challenges, but know why you’re doing it, love what you’re doing and just keep going.”
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