Queen Bee Bake Shop is a new bakery located in Fairfield’s Winnery Square shopping center.  The bakery is owned by Anita Esberto who also works as a registered nurse.  Helping Anita run the bakery is baker Efren Manabat and his wife Omega.  Efren has 25 years of or experience in the bakery business and originally trained to be a baker in Saipan.  Anita Esberto also has five years of experience in the food business as owner of the Nayong Filipinas Oriental Store in Fairfield, CA which she had sold in 2003.

In 2007, she began looking at getting back into the food business.  Having enjoyed eating fresh baked bread from her grandmother’ bakery she had always dreamed of opening her own baking business.  She came across an opportunity to buy a 25 year old bakery in Contra Cost county.  However, she needed assistance with valuing the business and process of purchasing the business.  She contacted the Solano College Small Business Development Center (SBDC) for assistance.

Charles Eason, the SBDC Director, provided Anita with assistance in valuing the bakery she was looking to buy and provided guidance on how to finance the deal.  However, she was not able to negotiate a deal to buy the bakery.  She then explored the idea of buying an existing restaurant, but again the deal fell through.  Anita then decided to explore the idea of opening a Tapioca Express Franchise and also the bakery that she had dreamed of opening.  Mr. Eason assisted her with generating three year financial projections for both the Tapioca Express Franchise and the bakery.  She applied for an SBA loan but was declined.  Not giving up, Anita returned to the SBDC to make some revisions to the financial projections. 

Anita eventually succeeded in securing a loan and in early 2008, Anita’s dream to open a bakery became reality when she opened the Queen Bee Bake Shop on West Texas Street.  She hired Efren Manabat to do the baking and Omega Manabat to work the counter.  Her son also pitches in during the afternoons.  In addition to retail sales, the Bake Shop also has started supplying wholesale accounts in the area.  Queen Bee Bake Shop recently began supplying bread to Country Square Market in Vacaville and Three J’s Oriental Store in Vallejo.

Client:
Queen Bee Bake Shop
Business Owner(s): Anita Esberto
Phone: (707) 421-9707