How Tuga Pastries Sells 14,000 Pastel de Nata a Week
Diogo Ferreira’s father Agostinho was a pastry chef who migrated from Portugal to Sydney in 1985 with a suitcase, a young family and a handwritten set of recipes. He went on to build a bakery in Bondi Beach that was hand-pressing 3,000 pastel de nata every single day.
Industry: Artisan Patisserie, Portuguese Bakery, Wholesale and Retail
Location: Clovelly and Alexandria, Sydney NSW
Vanrooy Equipment Used: Salva Kwik Co Double 5 Tray Convection Oven, Salva Prover, Salva Sirocco SP Double Rack Oven, Salva NXD Modular 5 Deck Oven, Gemm Industrial Trolley Blast Chiller, Gemm Refrigerator, Tekno Stamap Industrial Smart Sheeter, Escher MR Industrial Spiral Mixer, Escher Bowl Tipper, Fortuna Divider, ACF Water Meter/Chiller, IZO Doughnut Fryer
When Agostinho passed away in 2014, Diogo found himself sitting on a collection of scrappy recipe notes, some of them unfinished and the memory of the best pastel de nata he’d ever tasted. He’d spent years in hospitality running cafes, not bakeries, but he knew the product was too good to let disappear.
So he did what any driven person would do. He tracked down the people his father had trained, picked his mum’s brain and spent the better part of two years working through the recipes until he could get close to what his dad had made.
In 2017, Diogo took over a tiny former catering space on Clovelly Road, three doors down from his cafe, and opened Tuga Pastries. The plan was to keep it simple: a hole-in-the-wall, open when he felt like it, close when he went on holidays.
That plan lasted about five minutes. A couple of wholesale accounts became ten, then twenty, then the phone stopped stopping. He needed space, proper equipment and a setup that could actually keep up.
Starting Small, Building With the Right Gear
We started working with Tuga Pastries in 2018 and we’ve been with them through a real growth phase. The relationship kicked off through second-hand equipment as Diogo was building out his operation and it’s grown from there as the business has scaled and he wanted to invest in quality European equipment.
Tuga came to us for the Salva range in particular and it’s been the backbone of their production ever since. The setup we’ve put together for them includes:
Salva Kwik Co Double 5 Tray Convection Oven: the heart of daily pastel de nata production, delivering the fierce, consistent heat needed to get that signature caramelised top on every tart.
Salva Sirocco SP Double Rack Oven: handling the broader pastry range at volume, including croissants, almond croissants and the rotating specials that keep the wholesale accounts coming back.
Salva NXD Modular 5 Deck Oven: supporting production across both their Clovelly and Alexandria sites as output has expanded.
Tekno Stamap Industrial Smart Sheeter: precise, high-speed lamination for the pastry work that defines the Tuga range, croissants included.
Gemm Industrial Trolley Blast Chiller: keeping everything dialled in on the cold side for a daily-fresh production model.
Escher MR Industrial Spiral Mixer: a removable bowl mixer that’s perfect for all the different dough types Tuga Pastries specialises in.
We also put Diogo and his team through our Test Kitchen at Dandenong South before they committed, so they could see exactly how the equipment performed with their specific doughs and recipes. For a business built around a secret family recipe, testing said recipe on equipment before purchasing was incredibly important.
The Salva range was the right call for Tuga not just because of the bake quality, but because it scales. As Diogo opened Alexandria and pushed into more wholesale accounts, the equipment kept pace without drama.
Sydney's Go-To for the Pastel de Nata
Tuga Pastries is now widely regarded as the home of the pastel de nata in NSW. That’s not a marketing line, it’s what the numbers say.
Here’s where the business stands today:
14,000 pastel de nata produced per week, hand-pressed and made daily to Agostinho’s original recipe
Over 200 wholesale cafe accounts supplied across Sydney, with six delivery vans running daily routes
Two retail locations: Tuga Pastries Clovelly and Tuga Pastries Alexandria, plus the relaunched Tuga x Village cafe on Clovelly Road
Wholesale and retail split 50/50, with wholesale carrying the stronger growth trajectory
Team of over 100 staff across bakers, chefs, retail and drivers
Small business award winner, with regular recognition across Sydney food media
Collaborated with Gelato Messina (another customer of Vanrooy’s) on a pastel de nata ice cream that sold out and created a template for future brand partnerships
The wholesale model is what really sets Tuga apart. As Diogo puts it: you can’t afford to open that many physical shops, but you can afford to let 200 cafes do the selling for you. The equipment has made that distribution possible without compromising the daily-fresh standard the recipe demands.
And the nata itself? Still made to the same secret recipe that only Diogo and his mum know in full. Not even Tuga’s staff know exactly all the ingredients and measurements that go into making these delicious morsels! This is a secret meant to last!
Ready to Scale Your Production?
Tuga Pastries operates retail stores at Clovelly and Alexandria in Sydney. Find them at @tugapastries for daily menus, specials and market dates.
