bake - November 2017 - 8

2017
twentyfive
Our annual list of 25 of the most progressive
bakeries in America offers lessons for all.
One million dollars of donut sales in 88 days at one

Today, the specialty bakery category is ﬂourishing, in

store. This about sums up the phenomenal success of

part because of newcomers who worked their way

Hurts Donut, a once tiny donut shop that's grown to 15

up through the restaurant industry. One example is

stores and $23 million in annual sales in four years.

Paula Haney, who opened her now popular Hoosier

"I had $7.36 in my bank account the day we opened

Mama Pie Co. in 2009 in Chicago. Haney had the fore-

our ﬁrst store," says Tim Clegg, who founded Hurts

sight to devote her new bakery to what she loved to

Donut with his wife Kas (the donut connoisseur of

bake: pies. It had been a long road to get there, and

the family) in Springﬁeld, Missouri, in November 2013.

she was determined to focus all her energies on pie

"We had $2,000 in sales the ﬁrst day," Clegg recalls.

excellence.

"Then every day it was 10 percent higher, then another
10 percent higher. We realized right away that we were

"I had struggled with pie crusts for a long time,"

understaffed and our kitchen was too small."

admits Haney, who worked her way up in the food
business through ﬁne dining (working in pastry at

This is one incredible story of many in the retail

Trio under Shawn McClain and then Grant Achatz). "I

bakery business, which has undergone a rapid trans-

experimented with ﬂours, different sweeteners. I read

formation over the past decade. In many cases, this

every cookbook I could ﬁnd. Someone told me early

sweeping change can be attributed to the economic

in my career that hard work will always be rewarded."

crash of 2008-09, when restaurants were among the
hardest hit and independent retail bakeries started
scrambling for niches to hang on to.

So in this special issue of Bake magazine, our annual

twentyﬁve edition, we celebrate 25 of the nation's

Bake magazine's 2017 Retail Bakery Operations

shops like Hurts, pastry stores such as Hoosier Mama

Study reveals a changing face of the specialty bakery.

Pie, bread shops including Arcade Bakery in New

Among specialty bakeries that participated in our

York City, cake specialists like Cake Life Bake Shop in

study, 63 percent are female owned. The specialty

Philadelphia, and Hispanic bakeries including Porto's

bakeries surveyed have been in business for 19 years

in Southern California.

on average; full-line bakeries have operated for 35
years on average.

The goal of this issue is to celebrate the successes of
a select few in order to bring inspiration to the collec-

Specialty bakeries reported an annual revenue

tive many of you who are toiling every day to make

increase of 8.2 percent and proﬁt margin increase

your bakery business ever stronger.

of 3.3 percent in 2016. By comparison, the overall
sample of bakeries in our survey reported a revenue

The stories of these 25 bakeries bring valuable

increase of 7.2 percent in 2016. Full-line bakeries had

lessons for all, as the industry responds to the ever-

it toughest, reporting 5.2 percent revenue growth.

changing demands of the consumer marketplace.

08 < NOV 2017 | bakemag.com

©BUPPHA WUTTIFERY - STOCK.ADOBE.COM

most progressive retail bakeries - including donut
http://STOCK.ADOBE.COM http://www.bakemag.com
bake - November 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of bake - November 2017
