'We've been surprised!' - How Polish bakery chain Masovia found its way into the hearts of West Midlands customers

Masovia, a small chain of Polish bakeries with seven outlets including Telford, Walsall, Kidderminster and West Bromwich, reckon English customers have taken them to their hearts - and they say their success is down to UK high streets discovering a love for the flavours of Eastern Europe. 

The firm began as a bakery operation to supply bread to Polish shops in the Midlands and although the company still bakes thousands of loaves a day at it's Walsall unit, it's now enjoying rapid success with its own-brand bakeries.

The company is run by co-owners Greg Zajchowski, Pawel Podolal and Krzysztof Podolak, who all originally hail from Poland, with the name Masovia coming from the English translation of Mazowsze, a region in the Polish midlands.

They say they started the business to help bring a taste of home to Polish people living in the UK - but now they put its success down to the impact of English customers buying in to the "adventure" of Eastern European food and culture.

"The first shop was Walsall based around many Polish shops there, the next in West Bromwich - we thought we were opening businesses for Polish customers but our dream was always to bring in English customers. Now it's the total opposite, in some of our bakeries 80% of the customers are English people," said Director Greg Zajchowski.

"We're so happy that English people love our products. People say when they come in that every time it's like a new adventure because people are trying this cake they never heard of before, or something like that - this is eastern European flavours which are different for English customers.

"It's exciting for us and of course, we love sharing that with people."

The firm celebrated its most recent opening in Shrewsbury in December last year, adding to existing cafes in Telford, Walsall, Kidderminster, Redditch, Erdington and West Bromwich. 

Now, Greg says the warm welcome the business received from the "happy" customers in Shropshire has given them a platform for further success, three years after the company's first shop opened in Walsall.

"It's going much better than we expected. We're surprised by how warm the welcome was in Shrewsbury," he added.

"Our Shrewsbury customers are so happy! They're fantastic people, but each place is so different.

"When people are saying good things about us we love it. People are surprised about the quality and variety and of course, our prices are very reasonable here. We wanted to prove that you can do quality products for reasonable prices. And you can't compare our hand-made loaves with something you can find in the supermarket."

The company plans to open a further three shops before the end of the year but says growing "organically" remains the priority - with no particular target in mind. Instead, the firm intends to continue focussing on what it says are its "key differences" as it continues to expand.

The group is set to launch a range of healthy breakfasts this month in search of what Greg describes as more "upmarket" offerings, but he added that staying affordable was set to remain an important part of what they do.

"There was one review on Facebook from a customer which said we were 'cheaper than Greggs'. That was important for us. We want to show that we're not cheating, we want to prove that you can get top quality for reasonable prices.

"We decided when to open our own shops we'd present our products like we wanted to. The idea is to show the best quality for a reasonable price with great customer service in nicely designed places. There's heart and soul in our bread, we use all our own recipes and if we decide something is not quite right then believe me we work like crazy to get it right! 

"We just want to show people that we're different and we want to be different. We never say that we're better, we just say we're different and in the end, well of course - it's the customers who decide."