SATISFYING Bermuda's huge appetite for hamburger buns and hotdog rolls for the Cup Match holiday is a round-the-clock job ? just ask Peter Kehrli.

The owner of The Cake Shop and his staff of 15 are working flat out towards a peak demand for their bread products next Wednesday, as thousands prepare to get the coals burning during the island's favourite holiday.

Mr. Kehrli himself regularly works from 4 a.m. through to 6 or 7 p.m., while his five-strong team of bakers work through the night, mixing, kneading, shaping and cooking the dough.

The bakers normally work from 9 p.m. through to 9 a.m., but as Cup Match nears, they work from 7 p.m., sometimes right through to noon the following day.

White, wheat and marbled bread, as well as gingerbread and various cakes come out of the overworked ovens at the small, thriving bakery on Curving Avenue, filling the premises with a delicious aroma.

Over the last two weeks, The Cake Shop has baked its way through 20 tons of flour ? a quantity that would normally suffice for three weeks.

"On the Wednesday before Cup Match, we expect to sell about 800 dozen hamburger buns over the counter alone and a similar number of hotdog rolls," Mr. Kehrli said. "That does not include what we send to the hotels and supermarkets.

"It gets so busy that the police have to come and watch over the traffic."

Regular customers include the Fairmont hotels, Grotto Bay, the Wyndham and The Reefs. Many restaurants also buy his products, such as those in the MEF Group, and also retail food outlets.

Mr. Kehrli, 46, functions on five hours of sleep per night and relishes hard work. The booming popularity of his products ensures that hard work is something he is never lacking.

Hot ovens hold no fears for the Swiss-born businessman, a chef by trade who came to Bermuda 25 years ago to work at the former Penthouse restaurant on Burnaby Street.

From there he moved on to the Royal Palms Hotel, to work at the restaurant now known as Ascots, and then he worked as head chef at the White Sands Hotel up until 1996.

It was then that he took a step into business, by opening his own restaurant, Beethoven's in Dockyard. Together with business partner Bruno Heeb, he expanded his commercial interests eight years ago by acquiring The Cake Shop, the site of a bakery for close to half a century, owned for around four decades by Frank Mello, and something of a "back-o'-town" institution.

Mr. Kehrli deals with the bakery while Mr. Heeb takes charge of Beethoven's. Business at The Cake Shop was brisk from the start and with the gap in the market created by the demise of the Bermuda Bakery, it just got brisker.

"We can sell all that we can bake," Mr. Kehrli said. "Now we are outgrowing ourselves.

"There is nowhere on this site that we can expand. There are things I would like to do, like to sell sandwiches using our bread, but we have not got the room. I have looked at potential sites to expand, but it's difficult to find a suitable place.

"So if we can't expand the premises, all we can do is work more hours, but I can't find the staff to do it.

"All my bakers are foreigners, from Asia. Local people don't want to do it. It is hard work and very hot. The ovens are set at 450 degrees Fahrenheit. There's no air-conditioning and you have to work through the night. So it's not easy."

Mr. Kehrli said there were two keys to the success of his business ? the quality of the products and a good relationship with the customers.

"Our products are always fresh," he said. "When you buy bread at the supermarket, it has sometimes been frozen or it may be a day old, but everything people buy over the counter here is baked on the same day.

"That's why so many people come here for their bread instead of the supermarket. Fresh sells."

Too many customers don't order in advance and end up being disappointed.

"Sometimes people say they need a few hamburger buns and ask me to make some up," Mr. Kehrli said. "People don't understand what is involved in making bread.

"You have to mix it, which takes a good half hour, bake it cool it and pack it. The process takes a good three hours, whether you're making 300 buns or one loaf of bread."

Sometimes Mr. Kehrli gets returns from his retail customers. He makes no attempt to sell bread that is, in some cases, only a day old. Instead he gives it away, something that has only served to improve the already healthy relationship between the business and the neighbourhood. "I often give it away to the Salvation Army or churches, or I make donations to breakfast parties for the elderly," he said. "I like to make sure it goes to people who need it.

"I do the same thing with anything in the counter display at the end of the day. If it gets to 5.15 and we've got a few apple tarts left, then I'll give them to a regular customer or to a child. Some days there are children queuing up.

"Those children don't forget it and I think many of them will come back as customers in later years. Already I've seen some kids who I remember seeing here as 12-year-olds returning as 18-year-old customers.

"I don't mind giving things to those children because in some cases there is no-one at home for them and I suspect that what I give them is their dinner.

"It makes me feel good to do a little bit to help the community."