Owner of L’épi Artisan Bakery Group, Ignace Diompy, took over Crust Artisan Bakery at Fyshwick Markets two years ago. Since then, he launched the L’épi French Artisan Bakery brand, firstly at Chisholm Village Shopping Centre 12 months ago, and recently at Kambah Village Shopping Centre last month. Born in France, Ignace came to Australia in 2018 working as a baker locally, before making the brave jump into business ownership in 2021.

How did you get started in the bakery business, and what inspired you to open your own bakery?

I started when I was 16 years old. I was fascinated about being a pastry chef first, but I wasn’t the best student and a few challenges emerged, so I ended up being a baker. I began to discover how I enjoyed the bakery side more, and so I started my apprenticeship at a place in France.

What inspired me to open my own bakery is my passion for my job, as well as my interest in business. I am someone not really interested in fitting into the normal systems so it was pretty evident to me early on that I would be starting my own bakery someday. However, the main reason why I wanted to start my own bakery is because I want to create something on my own that is for the greater good. I dream one day – I dream a lot! – to make a difference in the bakery world.

For me, it’s not about having the brand name everywhere; it’s about bringing a fully sustainable product to the community. I have a dream to have a farm that grows all the ingredients in our products sustainably, to produce our milk, our meats and other ingredients ourselves in a way that is both ethical and sustainable. So, this dream of having a positive impact on the environment, to bring quality products to the community is what has inspired me to open these bakeries.

Tell us about how you have grown since your journey began. 

Oh, a lot! I have had more growth in the last two years compared to the previous six years. Although it has been really challenging, I think overall it is really positive growth. I have had many, many challenges; for example, during the first month of taking over the Hume bakery (now our manufacturing HQ), we went through many machines breaking down, all at the same time. I do think we went a bit too quick … the experience itself as a business owner was not too great, but what we managed to do in the business has had a greater positive impact on the overall business, because it has rapidly increased our learnings and knowledge. Right now, we are feeling more confident than ever, basically because of all the challenging stages that we went through.

What do you find most rewarding about running a bakery?

The most rewarding aspect of running a bakery is customer happiness. This is what it’s all about – customer happiness. Because we make a certain kind of bread that not everyone makes. And because the preparation steps and techniques we use are quite extensive, we don’t take any shortcuts. For us, it’s all about the passion going into our products and because we’re passionate about the product, when you hear someone talking about your bakery and your products in a good way and sharing those views to others, I don’t see anything that can beat that, with regards to feeling rewarded.

What is your favourite thing about working in a bakery?

It’s the process of having raw ingredients and mixing and creating those ingredients into a finished product for others to enjoy.

What are some of the most popular items your customers always come back for?

Oh, I would say our bread, particularly our wide sourdough range. We have 13 sourdough flavours to choose from, some customers just stick to one flavour they always come back for, other customers love coming back and going through our long menu of breads and trying the variety. Our baguettes as well we are really well known for, as they really represent us and the authentic French artisan style we bring to the bakery scene in Canberra.

How often are you looking to innovate and create new goodies for customers?

We innovate and create new goodies monthly. You will see in each of our bakeries a monthly special. For Christmas we have two specials coming up – a beautiful range of Christmas biscuits and a Christmas log. We find our customers love having new goodies to try in our cafés each month.

What makes the L’épi Bakery Group different?

The focus on the product. We are using the best quality flour that you can find locally and we are not trying to save and to cut costs on the quality of the ingredients. Also, our baking processes are really long, they are actually the longest processes you can use in bakery, so even though this costs us more, the quality is evident in our products.

We are constantly learning from our customers, listening to what they love, and improving and getting better every time in our journey and so that will always help to shape our quality products.

In what ways do you engage with the local community?

We have a vision for our bakeries to be spaces that impact the local communities they are in. We value family and so local families are at the focus of our bakeries. How can we create convenience and quality products that our communities love. We also have a plan to be giving back to our local communities over the next 12 months, as we settle into our new locations in Chisholm and Kambah, so we look forward to seeing those relationships grow in the new year.

To find out more, email [email protected] or visit L’épi Artisan Bakery at Kambah Village Shopping Centre or Chisholm Village Shopping Centre.

Facebook: @L’épi Artisan Bakery

Instagram: @lepiartisanbakerycafe