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Recipe for success

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When a couple of Andrew Stow’s friends brought him 50 aluminium Portuguese egg tart tins from Lisbon, they could not have imagined what the result would have been a quarter of a century later.
 
The original Lord Stow’s Bakery, located in Coloane village, is celebrating 25 years, and to put it simply, “Business is growing astronomically,” says Eileen Stow, sister of the Englishman who established the famous egg tart shop.  “Our situation is just trying to supply the demand. It’s a lovely position to be in, but quite troublesome. From our pastry production side, we need to expand our industrial premises, which is difficult”, she says. 
 
It’s no wonder Lord Stow’s Bakery needs more space. The bakery has gone from producing 200 egg tarts a day in 1989 to almost 14,000 a day. 
 
“Andrew had three bakers and one lady for sales”, remembers Eileen, who has taken care of the business together with Andrew’s daughter, since he passed away in 2006.
 
“When Andrew opened, everything was done in this little bakery – the egg tart pastry, the bread, the cakes. Nowadays we can only bake in the bakery, we don’t produce from scratch there anymore – that’s all done in Pac On, in Taipa. We bought a small factory there in 2006, thank God, and we have had to rent an additional place since then. I’ve been looking to buy another factory, but of course prices are running away with themselves”, continues Eileen.
 
Running Lord Stow’s with a team of 130 employees, Eileen admits “small businesses are like rollercoasters: sometimes you’re going up smiling, other times you’re plummeting down with a horrified look on your face”. 
 
So how does she make it as safe as possible? 
 
“I don’t want all that market, I just want to stay small”, she declares. 
 
Eileen feels that given the growth in tourism in Macau and increasing population of migrant workers, “anybody’s business is going to grow”. She is just not sure if that is the most important thing. 
 
“I’m more concerned about the city’s development than making money. I’m just content with my life, what’s wrong with that?” she smiles. 
 
Audrey Stow, her niece and partner, feels the same way. 
 
“She’s 24, she’s content and happy with the business as it is. She’s not greedy and wanting to be queen of Macau”.
 
 
The right recipe
 
Located away from the busy city centre, Lord Stow’s – which takes its name from Andrew’s nickname back in the days when he was  working at the Hotel Hyatt with many Portuguese colleagues – has Coloane and Taipa imprinted in its DNA. 
 
“I’m actually supplying eight outlets now. There are two major egg tart bakeries, the one we have here [in Coloane] and the one that we opened in 2010 at the Grand Canal Shoppes, at Venetian”, says Eileen.
 
The bakery in Coloane is still the most profitable and the most popular. 
 
“We also do a little supply for the VIP rooms at Venetian, but that’s the only exception of that kind. We don’t do supply for third parties”, Eileen clarifies.
 
Macau Peninsula and Senado Square are appealing locations and she’s sorry there’s no Portuguese-style coffee shop right in the heart of the city. Nevertheless, she doesn’t see herself moving there for business. 
 
“I like it here on the islands. We’ve become too identifiable with Taipa and Coloane by now”, explains Eileen, who is a “proud member” of the local Coloane Resident’s Association.
 
Stow’s family believes the bakery has “brought pride” to the former fishing village. 
 
“I know this from the interactions that I have with the local residents groups. They’re very proud to have the birth of the egg tart in their village, the Macanese egg tart.”
 
Eileen explains that it was the Chinese who called Andrew’s invention a Portuguese egg tart, like the famous Portuguese ‘pastel de nata’. 
“It was the only way they could describe it”, she continues. “Andrew had a lot of Portuguese friends and he wanted to make something nice for them, so he tried to make the ‘pastel de nata’ but he didn’t have the recipe. He never thought of taking over its identity”. 
 
When it comes to comparing different egg tart styles, Eileen doesn’t see much point. 
 
“Chinese customers like Andrew’s because that’s what they’ve grown to know. There’s no comparison, why do people have to play that game? Taste is not a matter of dispute”. 
 
Both Eileen and Andrew were very aware of the differences between their egg tarts and the ones that can be found in Portugal. 
 
“The Portuguese one has more of a patisserie custard in it, whereas Andrew’s is more the British custard. He took the crispy pastry that you won’t find in a British pastry like that, and also used the brûlée top”, she elaborates, adding that customer preferences also vary: “The Portuguese always like them very dark and covered in cinnamon, the Chinese don’t”.
 
 
Egg tart wars
 
Andrew Stow first came to Macau in 1979. When he finally decided to open his own business, selling egg tarts was not his main plan. 
“On his first little proposal to the bank, ‘pastel de nata’ was like fourth on the list. You had bread, birthday cakes, chelsea buns and then ‘pastel de nata’ as the core of the business.”
 
Time was to prove him wrong on his product ranking.  Soon Andrew realized that the small yellowish cakes were extremely popular, not only in Macau but all around Asia, starting with Hong Kong.
 
Eileen recalls when Andrew decided to open a shop in Hong Kong in 1997 – what she describes as the famous egg tart wars. No sooner had he opened his store, guess what happened? 
 
“There were copycat egg tarts on every corner”, says Eileen. “It nearly ended up destroying us by not anticipating the competitiveness of Hong Kong. It had a big financial impact. Everyone saw this as the new way to make money. But you learn a lot more from your business mistakes than from your successes”.
 
Lord Stow’s managed to survive the crisis and to grow consistently after that. In Hong Kong, they now have an exclusive license with the Excelsior Hotel. As for other places in Asia, Eileen draws the map: “We’ve got two franchises, both 15 years old now, in Japan and the Philippines. To be perfectly honest, it’s not a huge money-maker, it’s more great PR, but not something we have driven to expand. We concern ourselves with quality control. We can’t allow our name to go with something that doesn’t taste like one of Andrew’s. You have to stick to the rules”, she stresses.
 
Quality control is also important in Macau, and there’s no one better to taste test the egg tarts than Eileen. But does she? 
 
“When you see them every day, you don’t particularly want them”, she laughs. “I have one occasionally, for quality control, but I rarely would walk into the bakery and take one. I tend to be more addicted to our new products”, she confesses. 
 
Amongst other delicacies, Lord Stow’s Bakery is also famous for its egg white cakes, angel cakes and, of course, different sorts of bread.
As for the success of Lord Stow’s egg tarts, there is one reason above all others, Eileen believes: “The recipe hasn’t changed at all, nor the ingredients. We never changed it for financial gain, and I think that’s where many of our competitors failed.”
 
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