Bowla is a father-daughter run start-up, looking to promote a brand-new bread innovation product. The Bowla project was born in 2007, following a mishap with a second-hand home bread making machine (which was missing the instructions), purchased from a charity shop in Morecambe, Lancashire, while working away on a contract at a Power Station. During the baking cycle, I, Clayton, noticed the bread had risen so much it was touching the lid of the machine, unable to stop the cycle I waited for the results. The baked bread had mushroomed over, and on removal, once turned upside down, it resembled a top hat.
The unusual amount of curiosity from my colleagues at work, along with a concocted story that the bread was a Welsh traditional `top hat` loaf prompted me to try to design a smaller loaf with the same concept. From here the name `Bowla` (tm) `A Bowl with A Roll` (tm) for the bowler-hat-shaped loaf of bread was conceived.
In 2010, after two years initial trial and error with unsuccessful designs, the project was shelved. The project was revisited in 2011 for a second attempt at new designs, following several further prototypes and five more years, a basic final prototype was successful.
The company was set up in November 2016, when this first working prototype was created. After two more years of fine tuning, I finally achieved a fifth prototype design for three aluminium moulds. Each mould uses the same individual configuration, but different sizes, designed for three sizes of ovens, large commercial, small commercial and domestic ovens.
My daughter Hannah joined the project in late 2020, with aim in taking the business a step further in bringing our product to market.
Fast forward to early 2023 and we are finally ready to pilot our product through our unique micro bakery setup in Swansea indoor market, we hope to see you there soon!
Over the coming months we aim to deliver a series of pop-up stands at local events around Swansea and within Swansea University. All event updates can be found here and, on our Instagram, @bowla_ltd, or our Facebook page, bowla_ltd.
