Tell us a bit about yourself 

Hello! My name is Felicia, or Felly for short, the founder and baker of loafly bakery – Hong Kong’s first online banana bread shop. I was born and raised in Hong Kong, and started my love for baking in my high school Food Technology class. I’ve always been an active person and passionate about health & fitness, I love weight training, yoga and everything except running. I’m a type 2 enneagram which means I love to help people and share the love, i’ve always enjoyed connecting with people and giving to others.

What made you start your company?

I’ve always wanted to start a brand especially in food, but what pushed me was when I was asked by my company to bake banana bread for an event and everyone loved it. The way that it made people feel made me want to spread the bread (haha!) and spread the love. I managed to have a lot of time for research & development as I started to work from home during the pandemic in 2020 where I would be constantly baking for family and friends, and then I also realized there weren’t many places in Hong Kong that make or serve banana bread that wasn’t full of sugar or having that warm homey feeling, and so I thought I would change that.

 Tell me about your products?

Loafly is Hong Kong’s first banana bread shop, freshly baked and made with lots of love. Banana bread is such a great comfort food that I like to call it “A hug in your stomach”. With Hong Kong being one of the most stressful cities, loafly strives to bring locals comfort and happiness. By using healthier ingredients, you don’t have to feel guilty for finishing the whole loaf! The way to Hong Kongers’ hearts is through their stomach! Aside from our original banana bread and chocolate chip, our goal is to experiment and bring new and fun flavors of banana bread.

What struggles have you faced when getting into the industry?

The hardest part of any journey is taking the first step. There were many times I wanted to give up because I was too scared to start. I was holding myself back because I was scared of failure and of what people would think. I had little experience in how to run a brand or a business and kept telling myself that it might not look good and people would look down on me. I had so many doubts and “what-ifs” – countless mental spirals of uncertainty, it was honestly quite a mental challenge.