The woman who went from selling chocolates at 8 years old to building a luxury pastry empire
Alicea Malan, the founder and CEO of Lucky Bread Company, began her entrepreneurial journey at age 8, selling chocolates at school.
Malan started the Gauteng-based Lucky Bread Company in partnership with TriBeCa Coffee Company in 2012.
She was born and raised in Pretoria, attending a small farm school during her primary years, and thereafter attending Menlo Park High School, where she matriculated.
She grew up with her mother, father and brother. Her mother worked as a paediatric occupational therapist, and her father was a psychologist.
Malan explained that she grew up in a nurturing environment where both her parents encouraged her to work hard from a young age.
“My dad was a rugby player and businessman, so he was the one who encouraged me to make my own money, and dropped me off at a restaurant at 13 to start waitering,” Alicea told BusinessTech.
She explained that education was very important in her family, and this played a significant role in her upbringing.
When she finished school, Malan took a gap year in London, where she did everything from waitressing to cleaning hotel rooms.
When she returned to South Africa, she told her father that she did not want to pursue a corporate career and that she wanted to cook.
“I never thought that a practical career would be acceptable, but they [her family] were very accepting of my choices,” she said.
“I think because I enjoyed cooking from a very young age and liked entertaining, my dad definitely pushed me into opting for a career in hospitality.”
After her gap year, Malan studied culinary arts at the Prue Leith Chefs Academy, where she earned her Grande Diploma in Culinary Arts and Wine and became a professional Chef.
“I pushed very hard to get very good practical placements, so I think that’s where I got inspired by very important people in the food industry,” she said.
She explained that she did practicals at the top restaurant in the country at the time, and specialised in fine dining for a few years.
From fine dining to Lucky Bread
While working in fine dining, Malan started a pie business, cooking and selling pies from home and eventually at the Hazelwood Food Market.
“Fine dining is amazing, and it’s the core of cheffing because you learn to do things at a meticulous and unreasonable amount of hours and effort,” she said.
Malan said that the goal is not always about making lots of money, but about finding some sort of success in what you do, which could mean feeling fulfilled or secure.
“For me, it would be the feeling of knowing that I’ve tried absolutely everything and I’m happy with the result financially, security-wise and also what the end product is,” said Malan.
Malan worked at a boutique hotel where a guest of the hotel became one of the architects who designed the Lucky Bread stores.
This guest thoroughly enjoyed Malan’s cooking and introduced her to the owners of TriBeCa, who wanted her to cook for their restaurant brand.
“Then I met with Dale and Martin 17 times before I decided to join the company, and I got along with them, so they persuaded me,” she said.
Malan started running the food development of the TriBeCa brand, where she eventually resigned to start the Lucky Bread Company.
Malan’s bakery business supplied its breads and pastries to markets and TriBeCa stores before it became the Lucky Bread Company.
“I always knew that I was capable of doing my own thing, and I wasn’t scared. I wanted to do something that was original,” she said.
Malan explained that the lucky part of Lucky Bread was being together and that they were the right group of people to be with.
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