AL TAIT'S ENABLER CAPSTONE

We spoke with Alex Tait (Al), the father part of the ‘father-daughter duo’ that own and run The Orange Bakery in the classically small British market town of Watlington, Oxfordshire. Since opening just under two years ago, the bakery has been a huge success with the local community, foodies and pop stars alike. You are certain to find a queue each day down the high street patiently waiting to pick up a signature (and perfectly baked) Watlington Sourdough, delicious cinnamon bun or highly addictive cheese & Marmite swirl. The baking is exceptional hence the constant line of devotees.

Al and daughter Kitty baking their signature sourdough bread and pastries

Al’s daughter Kitty developed severe depression aged 15 necessitating her to leave school early. Al suspended a 20-year career in teaching to be at home full time to help her with her struggle. Together they started baking as a form of therapy for Kitty. Providing a sense of purpose, she began selling the baked goods via a small subscription service which led to a pop-up, evolving to opening a bakery together with support from crowdfunding. The Orange Bakery was born.

The bakery is undoubtedly the best in the UK but this project is so much more than just a high street project

SP: Let’s go back to what we call the cornerstone phase of a career. Growing up and some of the defining moments in the getting you to where you are today… tell us more about your early years…

AT: “I grew up in the outskirts of Reading, the eldest of four, my Father was a doctor, mother a teacher. I went to a grammar school at the age of 11. It was a boarding school but it was hardly moving to the other end of the country to attend, I could see my house from the school… I did well at school and was happy to jump through the hoops of the education system. I worked hard and got results, accepted into St Peter’s at the University of Oxford. At Oxford you have to step up several gears as you are suddenly surrounded by a lot of extremely intelligent people. However, I hadn’t learned to properly think for myself. It was like being in a car seeing other be able to put their foot down to accelerate whereas I struggled to shift gears. You have to take control of your learning at Oxford. I had been educated robustly at grammar school, but I hadn’t been taught how to think for myself. My children now think much more independently. I did ok but came out of Oxford insecure about what I could achieve. Whilst my peers and contemporaries went to traditional Oxbridge-type careers like banking, law firms and consulting, no city jobs appealed to me. I wasn’t really prepared for the real world.

I worked for a year in a school in Hampshire dedicated to disabled young people. It was a very hands-on job, working with severely disabled students. I loved it. It got me into the idea of teaching so I completed primary school teacher training in London. There were always one or two children that were harder to get through to and so I re-trained in teaching those with dyslexia. It led me to working in a specialist school in Pimlico. I found it fascinating that a dyslexic brain is wired differently, making more lateral connections rather than linear.

I realised I needed to think in a different way when teaching those with learning disorders and that it was about creating space that enabled the pupils to have the confidence to show their thinking in a different way. Looking back that was the start of the red thread… creating space and enabling development.”

SP: Next we say is your keystone phase, we consider this the time you make your mark, the ‘middle age’ where you make a dent in the world, create and achieve success.

AT: “I worked at the school for ten fulfilling years, I was head of the senior school. For those with dyslexia and dyspraxia, often the biggest challenge was changing their own perception that they were lousy learners and get them to think independently.

I felt I could look ahead and see a clearly mapped out path in education. I enjoyed the management side of things, enabling others to think on different levels, but at the same time, that level of predictability in terms of career didn’t sit quite right with me. The certainty looking ahead left me uneasy partly because I knew others were better at it than me, I didn’t have what I saw in other headteachers. I had a young family by this stage and the long commute from Oxfordshire to London daily was taking its toll. I made a move to a private school closer to home with a great ethos. I knew though, 5 mins into the new role I didn’t want to go down this particular keystone path. I had to stay a few years to round things off as I couldn’t walk away. My Oxford contemporaries had received accolades, money, high profile positions whereas I entered a period of time where I was earning less than when I had originally started teaching. I could however see the debris my successful peers were leaving in their wake of success. It was more about making the family tick and function. I trained up as an assessor for dyslexia especially focused on adults. At the same time, I took a role briefly in a big-pharma company. It was an interesting insight into the corporate world but was hard to make meaningful change within people vs senior management really wanting to just tick the boxes.

I went back to Oxford University to work with dyslexic undergraduates. I could relate to the environment they were finding themselves in. In my little ways, I was able to help them navigate the hurdles that I had faced. Again, it was about enabling them to formulate and communicate their ‘unconventional’ thinking in ways that other people could also understand.

I moved to more of a portfolio career, working for both Oxford University and for a charity in London that gave experienced professionals (e.g. lawyers, civil servants, financial service professionals, MPs etc) that had reached a certain point in their career the chance to make a positive difference to others. The charity parachuted the professionals into schools with shortages. They were able to be trained on the job and relay their expertise to others. Once again, I enjoyed enabling others”.

SP: Often there is a life jolt that changes the trajectory towards someone’s Capstone Project.

AT: “We were thrown what we’d like to think of now as a curve ball. Kitty my daughter became ill with severe depression. At one point it required both my wife and I to be off to look after her. Then longer-term it made sense for me to free myself up and be there for Kitty.

Looking back to a few years ago, I don’t think the portfolio career I had created was sustainable. I am glad I didn’t power on in that vein. Perhaps there was also something again on not being hemmed in.”

SP: Tell me more about The Orange Bakery with Kitty…

AT: “This certainly feels like my Capstone. Firstly, it’s been an amazing experience already baking every day with Kitty. The project so far has tapped into a lot of things we realise now makes us both tick. It’s provided us all with more purpose, its visceral, tactile, practical, creative but also hard work. Originally, we just loved baking bread and we had so much of it we thought we might as well sell it. But the original motives weren’t about selling things. It was more the joy of baking and the satisfaction from creating something. I was a bad baker, Kitty on the other hand was very talented. Her imagination and instinctive feel for baking is completely natural. I have put my hours in now (Al cites Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hours) and I have learnt a lot from Kitty! We both get a real buzz from trying new recipes and then a second wave seeing others enjoy the fruits of our labour. We are also lucky Watlington is a fantastic and supportive community.”

The Orange Bakery signature cinammon buns

SP: It sounds like a success already to me?

AT: “We’ve received a lot of positive attention- from the likes of The Times and Country Living. Clearly, Kitty is the main draw, and I am glad she is getting the recognition. We are increasing production by converting an old scout hut less than a minute’s walk from the bakery, we needed to expand as we are currently baking out of the family cottage. We have been writing a cookbook together that will be published by Bloomsbury which is in itself, something I would not have believed would be happening a few years ago. I am enormously grateful to have been able to explore a whole different world with this Capstone Project to date”.

SP: So what next for you both?

AT: “We are still working out really what we have. We’ve got this extraordinary opportunity to build something more meaningful based on our values. I am much more excited looking to the future now versus teaching, what is currently intriguing is the different directions we can go. I joke with Kitty about a band analogy… the bakery is our band and Kitty is the lead singer. It’s a platform that we are already very proud of but it’s also a platform for Kitty to launch her own projects from. Like the lead singer doing solo albums and then coming back. She has many many brilliant ideas. She needs the space to create, experiment and try new things out. This Capstone is about enabling her to carve out her own path. I have plenty to do to ensure that Kitty can spread her wings when she is ready. At the same time, the red thread that has been present through my career can also be instilled in the business. I hope to bring my experiences to the project – whether that’s linked to providing apprenticeships for young school leavers or reform programs and skill training with the local prison service. I want to continue enabling others and there is the potential to weave in educational activities into the business. Perhaps my understanding about the potential of learning in the classroom can be transferred to baking and bakeries. Maybe we can be a platform for others to gain self-knowledge and self-belief. We both look at B-corporations and hugely admire what they represent. We certainly want to look at the scaffolding they provide businesses. We have also connected closely with peer-to-peer groups in Oxfordshire based on social purpose businesses. The area overall I believe is ahead of its time and has a high density of innovative businesses giving back. Kitty loves listening to business podcasts and learning about different scaling models. She enjoys learning about the likes of Nancy Silverton and the La Brea Bakery in Los Angeles, Heston Blumenthal and his team in Bray, David Chang and Momofuku and Milk Bar in NYC… I am inspired by the likes of family businesses such as Timpson; how they scale but keep some of their original essence or what makes them special, they are always in the top ten list of the best UK companies to work for.

We both know what the next few steps are, not necessarily the whole picture of where this Capstone is taking us. What we do know is we are becoming clearer on our principles, things which are guiding our current decisions and will remain ingrained in our rather than bolted on as an afterthought later down the line. We certainly aren’t about making money at any cost, we constantly remind ourselves what matters and the ‘why’ behind what we are doing. We enjoy inventing, getting to literally taste our passion come to life and when it works (as well as seeing others enjoy), its sheer joy. We want to ensure whatever our core ingredients are within the business, they remain true to us and we make sure we don’t lose it. I already feel what we’ve created though is special.”

Expect queues down the high street but that’s part of the community experience

SP: Any final thoughts?

AT: “This has already been an extraordinary opportunity for me albeit in circumstances I wouldn’t have wished on anyone. I am proud that this Capstone, started as a coping mechanism, has brought our family even closer and is giving something others in our community love. I am enjoying being and enabler to Kitty as we build the foundations that will let her fly wherever it’s going to take her. I am enormously grateful with this chance to explore a whole different world. Kitty has got extraordinary potential and thinks very differently. I am starting to think we can create something even more magical out of it all for even more people.”

For more information about the Orange Bakery, Al & Kitty’s story or to sample their ridiculously good baking please CLICK HERE

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