Quality baking puts the icing on the cake

TradeNames: Tea Time Express had diversified but is back to basics with a strong focus on baking. Rose Doyle reports

The Tea Time Express story is all about more than 60 years of making cakes the traditional way. Sixty-six years, in fact, of real eggs and hand finishing, of a staff and customer loyalty which have garnered the company an old-style exclusivity and cachet which any amount of latter day marketing campaigns couldn't buy.

Time was when Tea Time Express was most famously known for its Dawson Street shop and the cakes were baked in Ushers Island. All's changed; the shop is gone and today's cakes are made, the way they always were, in Chapelizod. They may be on the move again however; expansion's on the way, the taste for Tea Time Express cakes unwaning.

The company was founded by the Arigho family on December 16th, 1938. Managing director Donal Hogan, a man who has given his working life to the company, knows the date and tells the story. John Tarrant, another (almost) lifer with Tea Time Express and these days a production consultant, adds fact and detail as we go along.

The original shareholders, along with founder Jack Arigho, were James Kearney and Norman Judd. The original bakery was in Usher's Quay and the company, originally, operated a daily, door-to-door delivery, on bicycles with sidecars, of freshly baked cakes. Things went well, even during the second World War years, and the cries of the cycling delivery boys gave the company its name.

Things went even better and the shop at 51B Dawson Street - which in time would become almost as famous for its queues as for its cakes - was opened. In time too a small teashop opened in the shop. In 1954 the Arigho family bought out the other two shareholders.

Founder Jack Arigho died in the 1960s, of a heart attack while at work in the Usher's Quay bakery. His son, John, just finishing school at the time, took over the company.

John Tarrant, with Tea Time Express since he came to Dublin from his parent's Killarney bakery in 1978, remembers how things were: "John Arigho took a great interest, was in the bakery every day. Miss Teresa McDermott was the manageress of the bakery when John was the owner. The company was small, about nine employees, and the range only ran to layered cakes, a few speciality cakes and morning goods."

Morning goods; custard and cream slices famous in their day but no longer an item; were Dublin's long-time equivalent to the croissant. Their demise was part of the company's march towards the end of the 20th century.

The Lydon House group bought the company from the Arigho family in 1972. "The company had grown significantly by then," Donal Hogan explains, "and Lydon House - whose base was very strong in Galway and Mayo - saw the potential for expansion into the Dublin and east coast market. John Arigho stayed on during the transition and for quite a while afterwards. In l978 Lydon built a state-of-the-art bakery in what is now the Sandyford Industrial Estate and Tea Time Express moved out from Usher's Quay and the city centre."

The new owners went on baking the same line of cakes although,thanks to modernity and EU directives, they were obliged to use new mixing and baking processes. Cakes continued to be hand-finished - "just as we do today", Donal Hogan says. "We may well be the only people left who really hand-finish cakes." Things went well enough for the company to open outlets in the Dún Laoghaire Shopping Centre, Irish Life Mall, Nutgrove Shopping Centre and a popular shop in the bakery.

The company, along with many others, went through difficult times in the early 1980s. Donal Hogan joined in 1985, straight from school, to work in the accounts department, and stayed. He became an accountant and, in time, one of the most youthful looking MDs around.

When Donal Hogan joined, the company employed 35-40 people and still traded on a certain exclusivity. "There was a much bigger product line then too," he says, "but we weren't dealing with the multiples, the supermarkets and such. Only with high class delis. It was policy not to supply shops within half-a-mile of each other."

He shakes his head. "I dunno. . .it had to do with exclusivity. I think it was the reason the company was struggling."

A couple of years on a management buy-out was led by John Sherry, who is still the company's owner. "He was MD of Lydon House," Donal Hogan explains, "and saw potential in Tea Time Express so bought it out along with Chris Kenny, John Tarrant and Marie Mullaney."

The new management team "grew the company", Donal Hogan says, "by moving away from exclusivity and supplying the multiples like Dunnes Stores, Quinnsworth and Superquinn.They also broke into the gift market, such as the hamper business."

There were other changes too.The traditional red box with its circular cut-out had to go. "It wasn't tamper proof," Donal Hogan explains, "kids would stick their fingers through and into the cake."

The new management also decided that the shops had to go (the only one left is in the Irish Life Mall) and cut production to what the company excelled at; the original layer and sandwich cakes.

The company moved to Chapelizod in the millennium year, a move which brought it full circle and close to its origins in Ushers Island. A visit to see Tea Time Express bakers and confectioners in action enlightened: cakes are iced, creamed, decorated and finished off with dexterity, all midst the soft, sweet smell of warm madeira and fresh baking.John Tarrant points out that they still use 100 per cent eggs while other companies, he says, use 50 per cent. "We're also obliged to use hi-ri-ratio flour these days," he says, "but otherwise the recipe is exactly the same as it was when I joined 25 years ago."

Management changes, the departure from the company of Marie Mullaney and John Tarrant (the latter is now involved on a consultancy basis) and the sadly early death of Chris Kenny, meant that at the time of the move to Chapelizod the company was being run by John Sherry with Donal Hogan as finance director, Clare Dolan in sales and Fiona O'Sullivan looking after quality assurance. Clare Dolan has since been replaced by Nikki Murphy and Fiona O'Sullivan by Siobhan Reilly.

"We've a low turnover in staff," Donal Hogan says, "with some people 23-24 years with the company. John Sherry has huge loyalty to Tea Time Express and that philosophy of loyalty and tradition runs through the company. We've gone for new packaging, and a slight change of logo, and we're looking at the UK and US markets now. But the cakes aren't going to change. We've decided to stick with what we're good at, making quality cakes. We won Great Taste Awards in the UK last year, two gold and two silver medals. Our Chocolate Orange Sensation 2003 has been a huge success, so has our Coffee Mocha Sensation 2004. We've a new one on the boards but I'm not telling! We're at full capacity and are actively looking for a new site for the bakery, one which will be double the size."