Each Monday freshly-baked, aromatic confections from the Kraków-based Blecharz confectionery appear at most Loftmill offices. A tasty, crunchy treat makes the beginning of each week more pleasant for the employees. Our “sweet Mondays” are a tradition that originated six years ago and unfortunately was interrupted by the pandemic. Awaiting its return, we decided to talk to the owners of the confectionery – Katarzyna and Marek Blecharz. Keep reading to learn about the secrets of the confections from their family confectionery and why they enjoy such success among Loftmill customers and associates.
Your cooperation with Loftmill, the serviced offices operator, goes many years back and the number of orders keeps growing. What is the secret behind your success?
Well, yes, we’ve been working together for many years. It started with a phone call with a question whether we’d like to supply confectionery to the first Loftmill office in Królewska Street. We remember that it was our puff pastry “leaves” and bow tie cookies with cottage cheese that stole the hearts of the employees and customers at the office. The cooperation developed rapidly and currently we deliver trays with confections to Loftmill offices in Kraków on so-called “sweet Mondays”, as well as on occasions such as various anniversaries.
You area a family company with many years of tradition. Do customers today prefer traditional or modern confections?
Our recipes are the most precious heritage of our company, based on tradition. The history of confectionery is very rich. Both of us want to combine tradition with the modernity, to respond to the expectations of the customers. That’s why we not only offer traditional confectionery, but also vegan cakes, gluten-free cakes and even cakes without sugar. I think the most important factor are the natural, organic products. For instance, we make the stuffing for doughnuts and sweet rolls ourselves from rose petals. We source ingredients from the same, trusted suppliers. This, however, does not change the fact that we are constantly looking for new tastes and keep developing.
The time before holidays must be difficult for a confectioner?
Difficult, but also very special! We could not imagine Christmas without poppyseed cake, fruitcake, or home cheese cake. We’ll do everything to meet the customers’ requests and expectations. Many of them have been loyal to us for years, which makes us really proud. We ourselves are the most demanding of our customers – to make a confectioner happy, and especially to make confectioner’s children happy, is not an easy task. Our daughters raised the bar very high for us.
Customers praise your confections very highly. How does one achieve such a success?
We are a small, family confectionery. We all work at our confectionery in Janickiego Street. This is where our confectionery, sold in four sweetshops, is made. The company already has more than ten employees and offers a family-like, fully supportive atmosphere. For over 20 years we’ve been working in a small, close-knit team and we simply like each other. We are open to out-of-the-box ideas and combine them with our experience – this is probably the best recipe for success in the confectionery business.
The biggest challenge that you’ve faced so far?
Roulette-cake, made for a casino. The customer wanted it to have the size of an actual roulette table. Another thing we’ll remember forever is the gigantic wedding cake for 400 guests.
We always try to take care of all the details personally and to learn about the specific needs of customers – as sometimes they are not expressed clearly enough.
Customers learn that we offer a wide range of confectionery: traditional cheese cakes, French meringues topped with dates, almond and lemon tarts and even various vegan cakes, gluten-free and sugar-free cakes. You should try our cakes yourself.
