A small bakery in Sydney’s north is among the COVID-19 success stories. And it’s all thanks to the tenacity of its owner, Cambodian-born Sophia Ly.
Nosh Plus is a bakery, coffee shop and community watering hole, with her trays of home-made pastries drawing customers by the dozen.
“[It’s] a place that we would like to think it is a local hub for the locals to come and get their fresh butter croissants,” she tells SBS Small Business Secrets.
“Most importantly, it’s more like a community bakery.”
Despite her success, many customers would be unaware that Ms Ly is juggling work and home life, raising her children alone after her husband died several years ago.
Nosh butter croissants are popular. Source: SBS Sandra Fulloon
She endeavours to give them a brighter childhood than her own.
“I was born after Pol Pot and all my memories are in refugee camps,” she said.
“My Mum fled Cambodia just after Pol Pot because she feared it may happen again. Pol Pot [tried] to eliminate anyone that [was] well-educated.
Pol Pot was a Cambodian revolutionary and politician who governed Cambodia as the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea between 1975 and 1979.
“Mum speaks French, Vietnamese and Chinese, so she was meant to be slaughtered,” says Sophia, recalling those dark times.
As the youngest of 10 children, Sophia was just a toddler when they left the family farm in Cambodia’s Siem Reap.
Sophia's family farmed in Cambodia. Source: Supplied Sophia Ly
They paid a guide to take the family across the border. For ten years, a crowded refugee camp was Sophia’s home and the family slept together in a cement dormitory.
“They fled to Thailand not knowing it would be a refugee camp,” she said.
“There’s about 12 of us, so we got 12 square metres.
“At night you always just sleep parallel to one another. There was no proper schooling [and] we got handouts from the United Nations on a weekly basis, they came and gave you a lot of tinned food and rice portions.
“Mum and Dad used to buy one apple and she cut it up into 12 pieces, and that [was] our treat.”
While her early years were a struggle, Sophia’s arrival in Australia in 1990 as an 11-year-old with limited English was also a shock.
Sophia as a young child with her mother. Source: Supplied Sophia Ly
The family moved to Sydney’s west and bought a block of land to grow vegetables, and a gruelling routine of hard work began.
“We woke up at 4.30 am, we went to the farm, picked fruit until 8 am, then got changed and landed in school by 9 am,” she recalls.
““I was severely bullied at high school because I [didn’t] speak English.
“We finished school at 3 pm, came home, got changed, went back to the farm and picked fruit … that was my life for five years.”
With a fortified work ethic, she bought her current business from relatives six years ago, with no savings.
“The first three years were really tough … I didn’t know what I was doing [but] I knew I had to make it work.”
During the pandemic Sophia has continued to grow, from a solo operation to employing 16 staff.
The ovens are on well before dawn each day, with her team hard at work by sunrise.
To meet rising demand, her team of bakers produce 2800 pastries each week.
“Everything is freshly baked on an hourly basis. Our signature product would have to be the butter croissant, we use New Zealand butter.”
“For the life of me, I would never have thought we would be as busy as we are today,” the 42-year-old says.
“During COVID-19, it amazes me that a queue can be as long as 15 people waiting."
Sophia's shop Nosh is usually very busy. Source: SBS Sandra Fulloon
Sophia plans to open a second shopfront next year, and while success tastes sweet, she takes pride in a simple life with her family.
“Success is all about your internal happiness,” she said.
“I’m comfortable in my own skin … my children are happy, I am happy."
