Adriana Parncutt is a Czech-born entrepreneur who built a successful gingerbread business in Australia. Her remarkable journey from her homeland to Australia is a story of courage, determination, and embracing cultural roots. Starting small, her gingerbread business has grown to supply renowned brands. Adriana’s dream is to establish a European-styled gingerbread house where people can experience her culture and products. Her recipe for success? Having a clear vision, tenacity and love for her European heritage.

Join me as I uncover the connections between land and love in Adriana’s life.

Meet my guest

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Read the interview (transcript slightly edited for concision)

Jump to: Leaving home at 18
Growing up in a communist country
Journey to Australia with a new love
The serendipitous beginning of Adri’s Gingerbread
The challenge of being from another country
Connections with the Czech culture and heritage
Dreams for the future

Rosana: Adri, welcome to the podcast. It’s wonderful to have you here.

Adriana: Thank you for having me.

Rosana: Adriana, thanks for taking the time in your busy schedule. I see that you are wearing your uniform and it’s almost 9pm. Looks like you are just as busy as you were when I met you 16 years ago. But back then, you were busy for a different reason. We met at mother’s group. We were both starting a new journey. You with your first child and I with my second. One of the things I remember from those days in our weekly coffee ketchups at Westfield is how you always looked beautiful. You really stood out in the midst of all those depleted mothers, myself included. But one day you revealed your secret. You said that Thursdays were “My beautiful day.” You had one day every week dedicated to dressing up and looking after yourself. Do you still have those special days?

Adriana: Oh my goodness, Rosana, it’s very kind of you to remember all these things. I remember you as well. And I think you always looked gorgeous yourself. I remember you walking in with the umbrella and juggling the pram and everything. And look, I think it’s really hard to juggle everything and to find a minute to yourself is almost impossible these days.

But for me, it’s really important to take some time off for dreaming. I’m a big dreamer. So sometimes if I can just stop and look at the ceiling even for just one minute and use that time to dream of something crazy, or sometimes even if you get a moment in a shower where nobody interrupts you, where you can just switch off and focus on one thing. I think it’s important.

Part 1 – Leaving home at 18

Rosana: Before we get to your gingerbread empire, let’s talk about the journey that brought you to where you are today. Your journey from Czech Republic to Australia is quite remarkable. Can you take us back to when you were 18 and decided to leave your homeland to work as a nanny in London? What inspired you to take this leap into the unknown at such a young age? As a mother of an 18-year-old who is exploring his place in the world, I can’t help but marvel at your courage. And I wonder about that motivation to choose that path.

Adriana: I think I was probably pretty brave and as an 18-year-old you feel that nothing can bring you down. You don’t have the life experience yet. So you feel pretty strong. And I think the opportunity came that I could get a visa for two years to go to England. A lot of girls at that time took that opportunity because you could earn a lot of money working as a nanny since the pound against the Czech crown at that time was still very strong. So it was very attractive to earn a decent money and travel, as well as learn about another country and improve my English. It was almost a no brainer. I had never been overseas so I was happy to experience the journey and see what happens. I don’t think there was any plan. This opportunity just came up. One of my friends knew a family that was interested in getting a nanny and I agreed to it. So off I went. That was it, really.

Rosana: It’s interesting, Adri, because the way you talk about it, it feels like it was such an easy decision. I guess as you said, for the young there are no barriers, right? But it was a decision that changed the direction of your life forever. Did you ever imagine that leaving Czech Republic at 18 would lead to a permanent move away from your homeland?

Adriana: I was pretty sure that I would come back because the visa was for two years. I didn’t really know what I was going to do after but I thought, well, with this visa I can go back and forth for two years. So I would still come home every six months for a visit. I didn’t really know what’s going to happen after those two years.

Rosana: How did you adjust your life in London? I imagine that it was very different from Czech Republic, which was a communist country until 1989. Moving from a country that was under that regime for decades to the multicultural melting pot of London must have been a huge culture shock.

Adriana: I left the country probably 10 years after the revolution and even though England was not that far, it was a completely different country, different mindset, different people. I started going to school in England as well and the teachers, I just stared at them as if they were from a different planet, because they had so much more experience with travel, with food. There were different cultures in England. In Czech you hardly saw anyone from different countries. So when I went to London, it was all cosmopolitan and for me, it was all new. I’d never eaten Indian food or any sort of curry. And you come into this country where there is everything. I had to learn everything. I was an empty canvas. I was terrified to even try anything. But London really changed my life and opened my horizons. I suddenly was exposed to so much. It was a huge change for me.

Rosana: Adri, I liked what you said about being an empty canvas. And it made me think that you were learning to be an adult in a new country. Although you were still in Europe, you had to buy a ticket, get on a plane and move away from your family. I wonder how your parents reacted to your decision to leave Czech Republic.

Adriana: I had never seen my dad cry before. But on the day I left that was the first time I saw his tears. And I just couldn’t believe it. That really moved me. Then I knew that me leaving was a big deal. It didn’t feel like such a big deal to me. But after seeing my parents realising that this girl, that was always shy and timid was leaving to another country… they just were terrified to let me go, I think.

It didn’t feel like a big deal to me. But on the day I left that was the first time I saw dad crying. Then I knew that me leaving was a big deal.

Rosana: I can relate to that. You were my son’s age and you left home. I can totally understand your parents’ preoccupation. But now tell us about how was that experience for young Adriana? What were the biggest challenges that you had to overcome?

Adriana: It was challenging at the start. I didn’t know anyone and had no one to talk to – no relatives or friends. There were no mobile phones. There was no internet at that point. So when I moved in with this family, it was an African family from Nigeria, it was a massive shock. They spoke a lot in their own language and they had a completely different cuisine, a different style of bringing up children. It was a little rough at the start. I embraced it all and learned a lot as we went along. But I was a bit shocked with how they lived because I thought that to have a helper in the house, these families had to be wealthy. But they lived a pretty basic life. They needed nannies so they could work because both parents needed to work to afford living in London. I stayed with a very poor family, the house was really small and messy. And they suggested that one of the children slept in my bed with me. I was really horrified. I was with that family for six months and I learned a lot about their culture and how they lived their African life in London. They had a lot of parties. I went to their church, I ate their food. I really embraced it but it was my first cultural shock. Then I moved to a typical English family where I stayed for a year. And that was again, a totally different lifestyle. I bounced around with four or five different families in those two years. I learned a lot through the different types of living conditions and styles.

Rosana: How about the language? Were you fluent in English or was English a barrier in this transition?

Adriana: I learned English at school but it was pretty basic. So when I arrived in London and I had to ask for directions I could not understand what people were saying. To help me learn the language, I would put subtitles on when I was watching TV, so I could see what people were saying. And words that I didn’t understand, I looked them up in a dictionary.

I did start studying at a language school as well. That’s when I probably realised how basic my English was and how little I knew even about the grammar. The language schools were really good and you make friends there and that really opens up a lot more things for you.

Part 2 – Growing up in a communist country

Rosana: You mentioned something intriguing about your initial experiences with families living in conditions that you describe poor by first world standards. It makes me wonder about your exposure to poverty in Czech Republic. Growing up in a communist country, I presume that wealth wasn’t prevalent. I did a bit of research and discovered, to my surprise, that Czech Republic is a developed nation with high per capita income. But I presume that wasn’t always the case, right?

Adriana: I was only nine years old when the revolution happened and we stopped being a communist country. As a child, you don’t think too much about what’s happening. You just follow what people tell you to do. At school when we were under the communist regime, we were given the same books, the same pencils, everybody had the same, everybody shopped in the same shops, everything cost the same. The prices were printed on the packaging.

The communist regime was very strict in terms of access to international TV or literature. And a lot of artists and writers had to immigrate so they could publish what they wanted, because a lot of things were not allowed to be published. So when 1989 happened, suddenly there was freedom, you could have a business, you could watch TV shows from America. You could see what they ate; they had cereal and we had never seen cereal before. We became obsessed with the US. We all wanted to experience the American life, we thought America was just the most amazing country in the world. And we all wanted to go there. I suppose a lot of Eastern Europeans had that American dream.

But in Czech everybody had their own house, and everybody had food, we always had pigs, cows, we were self-sufficient a lot of the time. So when I was living in London, I learned you had to pay rent. I never knew what rent was, because families in Czech helped each other build houses, everybody built their own house, there wasn’t such thing as mortgage or credit cards, we didn’t have any of that. Everyone was paid roughly the same. There was some sort of ranking during communism, but everyone had the same standard, I didn’t see those big changes between poor and rich or anything like that.

I never knew what rent was, because families in Czech helped each other build houses, everybody built their own house, there wasn’t such thing as mortgage or credit cards.

Rosana: I guess, despite of all the problems of a communist regime, there was much more equality.

Adriana: Yes, so that’s the change. And you were not allowed to travel before either, so when the borders opened, it just changed everybody’s life dramatically.

Rosana: Talking about traveling, Czech Republic is in the middle of Europe but with a two-hour flight, you are in London and it’s a completely different world. I’m just thinking in terms of Australia, it’s like going from Sydney to Adelaide, but a two-hour flight here doesn’t really change your surroundings that much, because the country is so immense. But going back to London, so you were there for two years?

Adriana: I ended up living there for four years, because I extended my visa from nanny to student, so I ended up extending my stay and ended up living there for four years all up.

Rosana: Adri, the next chapter after those four years in London is very exciting, but before we get into that story, there is something I want to bring up. You mentioned to me before that while you were in London, you were able to save a lot of money. Money is definitely a skill that would have been very useful when starting a business. Can you share a bit about that experience?

Adriana: Yes, and I think that probably comes from my parents, because money was always tight, and they would separate money into envelopes. I remember that my dad got paid cash once a month and the money got divided; this much goes for food, this much goes for petrol or whatever. I remember they always had a budget. They had to live with what they earned. I never knew that you could borrow money. So I think the discipline that you only buy what you can afford really stayed with me for quite a long time. You don’t buy things that you can’t afford. That was a simple belief that my parents had. And I was very strict with myself and I would only allow myself to spend, let’s say, 20% of my salary, everything else had to be hidden away. I knew that London was a great opportunity and it was only for a short time. So I had to make the most of it. But I needed to have a bit of fun and I had to pay for my school as well. So I kind of hid 20% towards the school and fun. And if I got extra jobs or extra babysitting, that was a bonus and I could spend a little bit more. I was very disciplined.

And I’d never had a bank account. I don’t think my parents had bank accounts. But when I lived with one of the families, they opened a bank account for me. And I was like, “Oh, this is crazy. I can see the numbers.” And I really watched the numbers grow. I really wanted to see bigger numbers. And I really wanted to save and put most of the money into that bank and have only limited cash on me so I would not spend it. I ended up saving close to $20,000 Australian dollars in those three years after paying for my school. Everyone at home thought I was very rich.

Rosana: I know, Adri. I remember growing up in Brazil, people had cheque books. They didn’t have credit cards until I think I was in high school. I don’t remember credit cards being part of life.

So, Adri, with $20,000 in your pocket, and that was a lot of money for a 20-year-old back then. But then your journey continued from London to the United States. Why the US?  Can you share the story of how you met Chris, your husband? And how that changed the trajectory of your life?

Adriana: Yes. So I think a lot of people were talking about America being such a dream place to go. I needed to see what everyone was talking about. I could already speak English quite well and in London, there were advertisements about the camps in America, where you can go on a four-month journey. They paid for your flights and accommodation and food, and you also earned a little bit of pocket money. So I figured this was a fantastic opportunity and probably the most economic way to see the United States. The deal was that you would work on a summer camp for three months and you would get four weeks to travel and explore the country. I picked one of the camps in New Jersey. I got home and I said to my parents, well, guess what? Now I’m going to America.

Rosana: And what were you going to do with the camp? Work with children?

Adriana: It’s interesting, because I worked so much with children that I really needed a break from them. I asked to stay in the kitchen. So I ended up working in a dining hall. We had 400 children on camp and there was probably close to 300 staff from different countries. So another multicultural experience for me. There were people from all over the world, mostly Poland, Russia, Germany, England, and Australia – which obviously changed my direction again. I met Chris pretty much in the first week. I bumped into Chris and he was in charge of the climbing course as a counsellor for the children.

We met in the gym and I had a go at climbing the wall and that’s when we first spoke and I was like, “oh my goodness from Australia.” I remember his big blue eyes and I completely fell in love. It was just a very strong feeling and I thought “what are we going to do with this?” We are from different countries and we are in different countries. But we were so much in love that after the camp, Chris suggested we went on a trip together. We went to Niagara Falls and the place was just so magical. We felt such a strong connection that he thought there would be never be such a magical moment. He literally bought a little ring, a really cheap little girl’s ring from a souvenir shop. And he proposed to me – after just only two months.

Rosana: That’s an amazing story, Adri. But I just hope that you’re not still wearing that same ring.

Adriana: I still got it. I still got it. But no, he ended up buying me a new one. But yeah, still have the original. It’s a little bit black, but yeah.

Part 3 – Journey to Australia with a new love

Rosana: Adri, from Czech Republic to the UK, the US and now Australia. The previous moves were temporary and much closer to home, but now you had a ring in your finger. It was a permanent move and to the other side of the planet. Can you talk about how, you handled that transition?

Adriana: I didn’t really know where to start. Chris explained that going to Australia was not a simple process. As you know, as an immigrant yourself, it’s not that simple. If you went as a tourist, you would go for three months, but you’re not allowed to work. If you want to come for longer, it’s usually on either sponsorship or a student visa. I thought, oh my goodness, Australia is really far to go. I have to make sure I do this properly.  So I said to Chris, “look, there’s no point for me to come as a tourist, because what am I going to do after three months? Turn around and come back home? That’s not how we can be together. And let’s face it, I don’t see you coming to live in Czech, because at least I speak the language already. And I’ve been traveling around, I think I might be more adjustable to a relocation. So it makes sense that I will try to move to Australia and see if our relationship can continue.” We also considered staying in England for a little while, because for him it’s a lot easier to find a job there. But his mum was getting remarried, his sister was getting married, so he had to return to Australia.  So I said to him, you go back home and I’ll figure out how to get there.

After some investigation I realised it was best if I came as a student, because if I studied full time, I could stay for a year and work up to 20 hours a week. So great, I could support myself and give it a go. So we were separated for nine months until I could come to Australia.

I had to do a couple of English tests to make sure my English was good enough because this was not just a language school, this was a proper course. I did a graphic design and advertising diploma, so they had to make sure I had a decent English to be able to do the course. So after nine months of sorting everything out, I arrived to Sydney

Rosana: Did you know much about Australia before you came?

Adriana: No, I didn’t. Obviously, I knew there were kangaroos and koalas and a desert.  Chris talked about it, and he showed me a few photos, the national parks and the beauty of the nature. But I didn’t know the culture, the way of living. I didn’t know how multicultural it was. So in a way, it was still similar to London, how multicultural Sydney is. So I settled in really well. But it was a huge change. Obviously, the heat and humidity was a shock. But other than that, I felt like I settled in quite well here.

Part 4 – The serendipitous beginning of Adri’s Gingerbread

Rosana: You adjusted really well to life in Australia, Adri, and you are now running a successful business. And I think it’s a business that came out of a lifestyle choice. How did it all begin? You started your career in Australia with a course in design and advertising. So perhaps we can start there.

Adriana: After finishing the course, I worked for a local print shop for a couple of years. And that’s when I fell pregnant with my daughter and after she was born we figured out where we wanted to live. And just before she turned five we bought our first house in Sydney’s Central Coast, and our lifestyle changed a again.

By then, I already had my second child and was working at Coca Cola in the corporate side, customer service, and commuting from Umina. I realised that my daughter was soon going to start school. I thought, well, I can’t continue with this commuting. I really had to think of something else. I said to Chris, “I think I’m going to quit the corporate life because when she starts primary school, I want to be the one who takes her to school and picks her up.” We don’t have any family around that can help us with any of that. I loved my job. I was crying on the last day. I didn’t want to leave it, but it didn’t make sense to travel to Sydney and drop the children at before and after school care. I just didn’t want that lifestyle.

Rosana: How long was the commute?

Adriana: It’s probably a good hour just on a train. Plus, you have to get to the train, so probably 90 minutes each way. So, I said to Chris, I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet but I’m going to do something. I will find something that I can do around the children so I can still take them to school and back.

I had done some freelance graphic design in the past. I just figured I always knew how to make money. You know in London, I sometimes did some cleaning, ironing. I knew how to make money. I think I always had an entrepreneurial mind, if you like. Even when I arrived in Australia I found a job within four days. I just walked down to the restaurants and I needed a night shift work because I was at school nine to five.

So we took our daughter to the primary school and the school was organising a market and I thought, oh, I could do something at the market, so I just put my hand up. I used to make Czech beaded jewellery as a hobby and made a few sales with that. I thought, I’d just go to the market with some of that jewellery and see if that leads to anything. We had the first market and because my daughter had her birthday the day before, I made some gingerbreads for her party and everybody really liked it. So I put a few gingerbread biscuits on the side as well.

In the first market I had the jewellery and a basket of gingerbread cookies, just very simple with smarties. They sold almost immediately, people would buy even 10. And I’m like, “what is going on here? I’m trying to sell jewellery but the gingerbreads are selling.” People were buying the food more because they like to grab something to eat and hang out at the market. I thought, okay, well, maybe I should make more gingerbreads for the next market. I made a whole heap more and again, the gingerbreads were selling. I still sold a few necklaces and bracelets, but holy moly, the gingerbread was so easy to sell. I thought, well, hang on, I need to rethink what I’m selling, because this seems to be a lot easier to sell.

So, I tried new designs and different shapes. The challenge was how to get the spices. I always had spices from Czech. Mum would always send me some because I was making gingerbreads for special occasions. But it was not that simple to source the right flavours here. Still, I managed to make them and we had another market that was a bit rainy and I didn’t sell that many gingerbreads. As soon as I was thinking I’m onto something suddenly bang, I didn’t sell that many. I made really pretty ones this time and I had even put a ribbon on them. I needed to do something with them. I couldn’t just give them to the kids. So I walked to one of the cafes and without any sales experience I just asked if they would consider selling the gingerbreads. I suggested we could maybe split the cost half-half.

The very first cafe, the guy just looked at them and said, ”I don’t have space. I’m not interested, go away.” So I tried another cafe and the lady was so lovely, and she said, “they look beautiful, I’d love to give them a try.” So I left the basket with pretty gingerbreads there and she called me after the weekend and said she sold them all and asked for another two dozen.

I knew I could make four dozen out of the one batch. I just needed another cafe that would take the other 12. So I approached another café and it was a yes and I thought, this is great, I don’t have to go to the markets. I quickly did the calculations that by the time you pay the stall fees and add your time trying to sell them and whole family tagging along, you know, I thought, it might be actually better if I just work with the cafes. I was going to get less margin but the time that I saved, it was great.

Then I got greedy. I thought, well, let’s see how far we can push this now and people started ringing me for private orders. And suddenly we had Christmas and we had our first big order – one of the local retirement homes asked me to make 800 gift packs for all the employees, all the retirees that live in the retirement village.

This was huge. I worried how I was going to make such a large order. Then I was talking to one of the mums about this challenge and how I was still doing it all from my home kitchen. I needed to set up trestle tables all over the house. She said her husband was working part-time and in his previous job he was a pastry chef. So he gave me a hand and I didn’t even know how to have employees. But we managed to get the order made and delivered.

Rosana: Wow 800 cookies from your home kitchen!

Adriana: Yes. 800 boxes – each had two cookies. So it was 1600 cookies, our biggest order and I think it just took off from there. More people learned about us and more people wanted them and even more cafes.

So It was totally unexpectedly, there was really no any intention or idea to go with gingerbread. It happened absolutely accidentally.

Rosana: Amazing, Adri. There are many things that are fascinating about your story, about the beginning of your business. But a few things really stood out for me. You highlighted that your business started by accident. And when accidents happen, sometimes we just have to mop up the mess and move on. Other times accidents or coincidences or serendipity, whatever we want to call it, they can open up opportunities and transform our lives. I once saw this study that said that a third of entrepreneurs had no plans of starting their business. So you were not alone. And although your story has a lot of random moments, it also shows that you were open to exploring new ideas. You had the tenacity to push through the challenges and to embrace the unknown, not only with your business, but also your move to Australia.

Many people would have given up when it became too hard. So it’s amazing. And I want to know more. So you delivered those 800 boxes of gingerbread. What happened next? You have been running your business for 12 years, right?

Adriana: Yes. 12 years.

Rosana: And for your first big order, you had one person helping. But how many people do you employ today?

Adriana: Goodness. Let me think because it sometimes changes after Christmas. We scale down a little bit. Christmas is absolutely crazy, as you imagine. But after Easter, we slow down a little bit. I usually keep most of my staff during the quieter times. We just reduce the hours a little bit. But we are a team of seven. At Christmas, it’s about 11.

Rosana: Amazing, Adri. Can you share now how you went from one helper to a team of seven that you have today?

Adriana: Yes, so I took a leap just before COVID. I decided I really needed a bigger place to work from. So we eventually sold our house and bought a bigger property that had a bigger production facility. After Christmas, I said to my husband, “What if I convert the garage into a bakery?” So at least all the work is at the back because I didn’t want the business all over our house where the children were. And you know, it was really tricky. I started getting more packaging and boxes and all that sort of stuff. We really needed to change things around. So we had this garage and we got it all fitted out. And my husband didn’t really like to give up his garage. I said, “Look, I’ll buy you a shed.” So we built a shed and refitted the garage beautifully – proper walls, proper flooring, and I even upgraded the oven to a commercial oven.

We worked there probably for a couple of years and I decided that even that was getting out of hand because suddenly we had to organise pallets to go out of the house. And that was just no longer possible from a little garage.

But I also always wanted to have a little shop. So we tried a little shop that that had a reasonable rent and operated Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, so I didn’t have to be there during the week. We tried that for a year and it was really a difficult time. The ferry that was bringing the tourists stopped running and the market went down hill quite badly. Unfortunately, we got there at the really bad time but we still had a very successful Christmas there.

 Then I figured if I put the rental money into a mortgage, we could get probably a much bigger house and produce there. I realised that in the shop front I could not produce and I needed to produce because when business is quiet and people are not coming to the shop, at least you can make cookies for the cafes. When I was at the shop I was stuck.

So we actually searched for a house and the criteria was we had to be able to produce there.

Rosana: Everyone’s idea of a dream home is different, right?

Adriana: Yes. Our real estate thought we were crazy. We would walk through the house and say, “Nope, next.” And they’re like, “You didn’t even look at it.” But we were just looking for a space for the baking. We had to have either a good double garage or some sort of area in the house that did not affect the household too much. So that’s what we shopped for.

Eventually we found a house that wasn’t even in the market because the real estate agent knew exactly what we’re looking for. One day he called us and said, “Look, we’ve got a house that has got a massive ramper room that is completely separate.” And we saw the house and asked him to please not to sell it to anyone else. We just wanted to buy it. We didn’t even know if we could sell our house for the amount that we needed to buy this house, but we just gambled, we just bought it. So we moved in and operated from there for a couple of years.

And then again, the business continued to grow and we had couriers coming to our driveway and the neighbours were not that happy with us. Again, we were taking over the house. The staff was having lunch breaks in our garden and the kids were complaining – it started to really annoy me again. So I knew I had to make a next step. That year, by the time we finished Christmas the cookies were all over the house I said to Chris, “Let’s just buy a warehouse.”

We had a look at some warehouses and this one they were just finishing, completely new, last two units left to be sold and I’m like, “Yep, I’ll take it.” I didn’t know if I could afford it, if I would get finance, but I knew I had to buy it.

So I put a deposit to lock it in and I had no idea how to fit the unit, how to do anything, but I was just so sure I could take this step. So I said to my staff, “We are moving to a new production.”

 It was a 100 square meter concrete hall and when I looked in I thought  “Oh my god, what have I done? Now I actually have to make this work. I actually have to turn it into a bakery.”

I was just going forward, forward, not looking back. And suddenly it hit me “what if this doesn’t work?” But there’s nothing you can do. You just have to keep moving forward. I had the vision but suddenly I was a little bit terrified.

Rosana: It’s so interesting, Adri, because it feels like for all those years since you left home, you were going at full speed. You moved to another country at 18, you met your husband in the US, you moved to Australia, you trained as a graphic designer, you started a family and a business – a business that just kept growing. And now you had a bakery, your very own cookie factory. And I guess because, as you said before, things were just happening almost by accident. You just went with the flow. But now I guess you had a vision for your business, a vision of growth. And you were making that commitment to your vision without a business plan, without a strategy. I guess it can be quite scary then. And you were basically just trusting your instincts, right?

Adriana: Yeah, pretty much. Yeah, don’t do it. I don’t recommend it (chuckles). Look, I didn’t do it completely out of the blue. I say every risk is a calculated risk. I learned that from one of my suppliers. I can’t say that I didn’t think it was possible. I definitely knew that we were growing quite rapidly. And if something didn’t change, we just couldn’t grow any further. We would just have to stop growing or stop taking more customers.

I knew that we were growing so rapidly that I figured I could probably handle the repayments. And I could also increase the revenue by having more customers coming to the shop. Because once we were producing in our house, I didn’t want people to just walk into our house. So this opened the opportunity for a little bit of a shop front that I still craved and still wanted to have a bit of a showroom or somewhere where I could have meetings and things like that. So I wasn’t terribly scared to go for the warehouse. I really trusted that I could make it work.

It was a way to have a facility that is safer for the production. We could ship pallets because it had a roller door. We bought the property in November by February we were moving in.

That’s three and a half years ago when we started a proper production. And after that we got the contract with Haighs Chocolate. I think in 2022 we had 25 pallets coming out of that facility. So that would not have been possible from our house. We had so many pallets with Christmas products. It was insane. I proved that it was worth doing it. It was terrifying. But we just wouldn’t have been able to do any of those jobs if we didn’t have the space to do it.

Rosana: Your house became too small for your dreams, Adri. And you’ve proven that you can turn dreams into reality. It can be done.

Adriana: It can be done. I wish I could tell you it was all smooth, but it wasn’t. It definitely wasn’t. We had COVID and everything suddenly stopped and all the cafes and restaurants were closed. I feared if we couldn’t produce for the cafes and restaurants, we could not produce for anybody. What are we going to do?

I thought I would have to shut down for the whole time. And then how are you paying bills? How are you paying the mortgage? It was terrifying. But we sailed through it. We managed to grow the business even more during COVID because people were still able to buy food. And that’s the only thing that they could buy. So we had again, another growth coming through COVID. But things were still challenging after that, and the way the economy is going at the moment it’s still challenging even now. You know, the hospitality industry is struggling big time with increased costs and their sales are slower. So it is a challenging time. We’re still going pretty strong, thank goodness. But yeah, I can definitely see a bit of a decrease in sales. But we just had more new customers that sort of made up for it. But yeah, there’s always challenges.

Part 5 – The challenge of being from another country

Rosana: It’s really amazing, Adri, that you overcame all these challenges as a migrant, starting a business from scratch in a new country, in a new language, without a local network.

Adriana: That’s right. Yes. Of course, it’s a much bigger challenge.

Rosana: I saw some research recently, comparing the population of skilled migrants in Australia with the rest of the population. What caught my attention was that although the skilled migrants are much more qualified than the average Australian population, the unemployment rate is slightly higher. Not by much, but it’s still higher. So skilled migrants are almost twice as likely to hold a diploma or bachelor’s degree, and three times more likely to hold a postgraduate degree. This made me think that migrants have to work much harder to prove themselves just to be on par with the average Australian. Was this your experience? What is your reaction to this reflection?

Adriana: I think so, because people hear your accent straight away, and they question if you know what you are doing. I think you have to prove yourself so much more. And obviously, we had to prove that our product was right, that we won a few awards and things like that. That helped show the portfolio of the clients that we have. But it’s like when you win the second prize, you just try extra hard next time, because you just you do have to push yourself a bit harder.

Rosana: Talking about proving yourself, Adri, your business has received some prestigious awards. Would you like to talk about your prises?

Adriana: Sure. We’ve received six medals for the taste of the product. I’m so proud of those awards simply because they’re proper competitions. You know, these days, there are so many competitions that give away prises based on how many people follow you or how many likes you get. I find this unfair that a lot of people collect those sort of competitions.

The competitions that we have won are purely based on the taste, the texture and presentation of the product. So the Sydney Royal show, they do such a good testing of the product – it’s a blind test. So it’s all blind packaging. And there’s usually six judges. And they all taste the products and score the product based on its taste, texture, quality, presentation. And based on those numbers, you either receive a medal or you don’t. So we’ve got a few silver medals, we’ve got two gold medals. And we’ve also received a bronze medal in Tasmania. We’ve got gold from Melbourne and gold from Sydney. So yeah, we are very proud that they tasted and proved that the product is delicious as well. So that’s wonderful.

Rosana: I attest to that as I tried your biscuits – they are delicious.

Adriana:  Thank you. So that was pretty amazing.

Part 6 – Connections with the Czech culture and heritage

Rosana: And do you want to talk about your background and how your culture has influenced your business?

Adriana: Good question. I think that somehow we still trying to hold on to our heritage in some way. And even when I was making some jewellery from beads, I was trying to source the beads from Czech Republic, because Czech is quite famous for its painted glass and the gingerbread as well. It is such a traditional thing in Europe. And I couldn’t find a really nice gingerbread here, to be honest. I hope I’m not going to offend anyone, but I found they lacked in flavour here. They either put only ginger in it or just cinnamon and they are very hard.

I thought, where is the traditional European gingerbread, the nice soft texture and full of that nice blend of spices? I was really disappointed that you couldn’t’ find that flavour that I was used to as a little girl. And I think I was really trying to be in business with something that was close to my heritage. And the spice blend is so unique. I really worked so long to develop the right flavour that I remembered as a little girl.

Gingerbread reminds me of such fun times to celebrate Christmas together. It’s means family. It means people having fun icing together. I wanted to hold on to that memory or to that heritage. I feel that it’s something that I can still have by my side from my own country that represents the European food. It’s interesting that you still try to hold on to something that reminds you home.

Rosana: Talking about home, where is home for you today? And how is your connection to my Czech Republic today?

Adriana: I miss my country as I get older more and more. It’s incredible. It surprised me really that now in my 40s, I feel like I need to see it, feel it, smell it so much more than before. I feel like I want to share more with my children to show them where I went to school. What did I do when I was a kid? I really feel like I want to pass on more of the culture. Just so when they grow up, they’re more comfortable to go there more often.

I still think of Czech as home and I would love to go more often for sure. I just think the first time after we had not been there for a long time, after COVID, I think the four years when I had the gap, I remember just landing, I just burst into tears just knowing I was home.

I just wanted to smell the country, smell the forest. I think home is where your family is. And of course, when you have your own family, you feel your home is wherever they are. So I can’t say that Australia doesn’t feel like home. Of course, we’ve got our own house here and we’ve got our children here. And you know, as long as I’m with my family, I’m happy. But I definitely feel I crave the Czech culture, the Czech smell, you know, so much more now.

Rosana: It’s so interesting you said that because I feel the same way as I get older, I feel much more connected with my roots. There is an interesting experience I had last time I went to Brazil: when the wheels on the plane hit the ground at the airport in Sao Paulo. This feeling of belonging just washed over me. I felt so calm and so grounded. I didn’t think that after all those years, I would feel like that. And maybe that’s something that comes with age. You know, we long for that sense of connection.

Adriana: Yes. Yes.

Part 7 – Dreams for the future

Rosana: Adri, what are your plans or your dreams for the future?

Adriana: I’m still thinking how to enhance the connection with Czech even more here. I really love in Europe, in general, and Czech Republic, Germany, Austria, all these countries that are really good with their hospitality. Over there, Hospitality is actually a career. Here it’s something that people do between careers.

I love that in Europe, they have beautiful playgrounds next to the cafes, where children are safe to play in a sandpit or in a nice wooden playground. And the parents can sit by and enjoy their lunch. It’s thought of so much more. And I dream of having that gingerbread house where I could actually invite people over to relax. And I think because being such a dreamer and such a story lover, I would love to recreate that moment where people could come to a real gingerbread house to buy the biscuit, to see the production, to smell, to be happy with the family. I think that is on my mind. I think at the moment, because we’re manufacturing mostly for the cafes and growing, maybe in the future when I don’t feel like we can continue or if I don’t want to continue the business in such a large scale, the idea of having a beautiful European looking house that has got that gingerbread house look would probably be the biggest dream.

I’m not quite sure how to quite get there, but that didn’t stop me before, as you know. Yeah, so I think I just kind of need to wait for the right moment to present itself. And we’re talking to a lot of the Central Coast Councils, who are absolutely interested to work on the tourism there. And there are a lot of interesting stories and interesting people to talk to. So, you know.

Rosana: I don’t think anything can stop you, Adri. I have a final question for you. What’s your recipe for success? What advice would you give to other migrants trying to start a business?

Adriana: I would say that you really have to have a clear vision and don’t let anyone to mess up with it. Because if you do have a vision, if you’ve already pictured what is possible, you can make it happen. Don’t let other people tell you otherwise. You really have to strongly believe what you want to do and go after it and not look back. I mean, it’s going to be challenging. You have to be sure that you can handle the challenges, because it’s a roller coaster. It is up and down. You have to be strong. But if you truly believe, you have to give it a go and not doubt yourself. If you’re doubting yourself, obviously, that will set you back a little bit. But you have to trust that you can make it. Because if you believe in it, you can make it happen for sure.

Rosana: And do you have any questions for me?

Adriana: I would like to ask you, if you had the opportunity to go to any other country, would you still have chosen Australia? What would you think?

Rosana: That’s a very good question, Adri. Because I didn’t know much about Australia. So I didn’t really have strong feelings about the country. It was more of a practical decision. We were looking for a country that met a certain criteria. It had to be an English-speaking country in the first world. And you had to be allowed to work as an international student, because we didn’t have much money. And more precisely, the partner of the student had to be allowed to work as well. And in Australia, I would be allowed to work full-time while, my then husband, studied. We couldn’t afford international student fees for two students at the same time. So Australia basically ticked our boxes.

But soon after we arrived, we realised that Australia was a great country, a country with lots of opportunities and quite welcoming of other cultures. And the weather was good as well, at least most of the year. I still have trouble with winter, I would struggle to live in a very cold country. So yeah, I think I made the right choice. And in retrospective, if I had to make that choice again, knowing what I know about the world, I would choose Australia all over again. The only challenge really for me is the distance. It’s so far from everywhere, but especially from Brazil. But yeah, I would choose Australia again.

Rosana: Adri, we can’t end our conversation without telling our listeners where to find your gingerbread.

Adriana: Of course, you can find us on our website, which is www.adrisjingerbread.com.au. And you can find us under the same name, Adri’s Gingerbread on socials. And we also stock in a lot of IGAs, and cafes all over Australia. And of course, all David Jones stores have got our products for Christmas and Easter under their branding though. So, you have to check it when you see gingerbread biscuits at David Jones, if it is us, but all of the stores will have them.

Rosana: Adri, thanks so much. I truly enjoyed learning more about your business and your journey. You have been so generous in sharing so much of your story. Your entrepreneurial spirit really shines through your journey. Thank you so much for sharing your experience and the lessons you’ve learned along the way. Thank you.

Adriana: Thank you so much. And thank you for having me. And thank you for creating this beautiful podcast to let other people know about, you know, what it’s like to start something like this being an overseas person and inspiring others.

Rosana: Thank you for listening to Land and Love. I’m Rosana Wayand. If you liked this show, please subscribe and share it with your social media channels.