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He is a baker at heart and prefers to eat and make croissants. In addition, he daily vlogs with his wife and eight children about the life of ‘De Nagelkerkjes’. The fame of the TV program ‘Een Huis Vol’ and YouTube provide a nice boost in sales in the bakeries and ice cream parlors of Jan Nagelkerke. Every day he runs these companies with more than 70 people. The eldest five children also like to work on the weekends.
The Nagelkerke bakery started a few generations before you in Prinsenbeek. Did it feel like an obligation to continue or did you really enjoy the work?
“Yes, I really enjoy my work. I always knew I wanted to be a baker. At my parents’ kitchen table it was always about baking and still is. Delicious! Especially the first years I really enjoyed the bakery profession. At that time I was a full-time baker and busy with production. Now I’m only scheduled in the bakery for two days and I’m more of a ‘manager’ for the rest. I like being a baker the most. But as a company you also have to grow and make choices. And that brought me into this role.”
Where do you find the time to also spend time with your family?
“The advantage of being a baker is that you always start early in the morning, so I have part of the afternoon free.”
Do you get out of bed easily?
“No, it always hurts when the alarm goes off. It never got used to. But once I’m out of it, I don’t care anymore.”
What was the impact of the corona crisis on your companies?
“In our catering businesses there is now of course light on the horizon again, but during the corona crisis it just wasn’t fun anymore. We have 30 seats in Roosendaal and 30 in Oudenbosch, so they remained empty. The whole atmosphere was gone and we really thought about stopping. Fortunately, we had sold a bit more with the bakeries. We have also come up with new ideas, such as letterbox packages with chocolate, for example. We really see the benefits of having multiple types of businesses.”
Have you experienced difficult periods before?
“New. But I think the most difficult period is now coming with rising energy costs and grain costs. I don’t mind that. Normally we have 5,000 euros per month in energy costs in the bakery in Oudenbosch, which is now 15,000. Bizarre. I am afraid that in the future we will have to become much more expensive and that could become a problem.”
How do you deal with that?
“First look everywhere where we can save. We have been paying extra attention to energy costs for some time now.”
Do you still see the future positively?
“Yes. That is the advantage of being a baker. We always have bread and games. It remains basic food that we sell.”
What do you prefer to bake?
“Croissants. The process of making croissants is amazing. I almost always work on Mondays and that day we always do croissants. I also made videos of that process and you can see them on my YouTube channel Bakflix. It is wonderful to be involved with food, that is my passion. Anyway, I like food, I always cook and we regularly go to special restaurants. I like everything except McDonald’s. That tastes like nothing.”
What are the developments in the bakery industry?
“The bus bread has actually been declining for years, but everything ‘tasty’ is rising. Pastries, biscuits, savory and small bread are all on the rise. By the way, sourdough bread is also a nice riser. We bake many types of sourdough bread. What is striking is that the ‘basic’ pastries such as the cream bun, tompouce and castle pastry always continue to run well. We regularly come up with new products, but they often go out after a while.”
What would you advise a starting entrepreneur?
“In the early years, invest in your company and not in yourself. My first investment was a dishwasher. If you choose to become an entrepreneur in a profession like mine, for which you still need capital, that is a very important one. In the first ten years I only invested in the machinery, assortment and my people.”
Did you really have to pay attention financially in those first years?
“Wow, we didn’t need that much. We lived in a small apartment above the bakery at the time and that was fine. In fact, we didn’t even need a car. If I compare then with now, it is now very special to hear how things are going. And that we even earn nice income from YouTube. Last year that was our third best BV.”
How does it feel to be a celebrity?
“You get used to it. For example, people want to be photographed and that’s nice. That fame is mainly in West Brabant, where we also have the most viewers. Of course it is also partly a promotion of the company. As a small baker you have to do something to stay known, so we applied guerrilla marketing. I find it very interesting to make television. I once also participated in ‘Taste Differences’ and of course our family became known for ‘Een Huis Vol’. It was great fun, but also heavy. But you don’t forget it in a lifetime, so that’s why we participated. You only live once.”
Is that your motto too?
“Yes. We often play that song in the car with the family from ‘Live, as if it’s your last day’. Look, you have to work with a company, of course, but we make it something fun every day. We are glad we started vlogging, because that is precisely why we started living more consciously. Every evening we discuss the day with each other, a very nice moment. The children then tell about their day and that doesn’t have to be a special story. Still, it’s nice to hear that our little one had grapes for lunch, for example.”
Who do you want to sit at the kitchen table with?
“Just with my family or with my parents and brothers. It’s nice to talk about baking together.”
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