Case 3.1 Y. K. gourmet cakes(a)
Glenn Darley, Luke Chai, Tan Teng Cheong under the supervision of Amal Karunaratna, The University of Adelaide Background
Y. K. is the producer of the Australian gourmet cake, its sole product. It is a small company founded in 1990 by John Salitas, Managing Director of Y. K. The company employs a secretary, a marketing consultant and two full-time employees, with the rest being casuals. It currently produces around two thousand cakes a day, with a capacity to produce one million per annum. The operation is based in Wayville, an Adelaide suburb, with an annual turnover of $2 million and an average growth rate of 11 per cent.
Its cake is unique, with no known competitor either locally or overseas. The cake was initially launched as a Christmas cake in South Australia in 1990 and has become regular Christmas fare for many people in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
The cake is a 700-gram measured combination of glazed fruits, nuts, flour, sugar, eggs and essences, which are baked to perfection. It has a recommended shelf life of 12 months from the manufactured date.
The cake was initially sold in supermarkets throughout Australia and began to be exported to the United Kingdom in 1993. After its success at the Anuga Food Fair in Cologne, Germany, in 1997, it was exported to the United States and New Zealand. In 1998, South Africa was included, followed in 2000 by India. Over 50 per cent of the Y. K. gourmet cake production is currently exported.