Baking & Snack - May 2016 - 29

his family comes from, pretzels have become omnipresent, unlike in the past, when they were only popular in
southern Germany's Oktoberfest and beerhall culture.
"Now you can't walk down the street without seeing
people with a pretzel in their hands," he said. "It's completely changed. It's the fast food of Germany. It's certainly the signature item."
"Knowing that it's that big in Europe, and Americans
haven't seen the authentic product, it's like the croissant
in the 1980s," he continued. "People back then didn't
know what a good croissant was. Now, they understand
what a good croissant is. Yes, there are bad croissants
and good ones. I want to be the good pretzel - the best
pretzel. I want to introduce people to a new world of
pretzels."
The company began automating soft pretzels three
years ago at its original 40,000-sq-ft commissary, which
also supplies Servatii Pastry's retail bakeries with an array of European-style breads, rolls, cookies, sweet goods

and desserts. That commissary and the retail business
are now overseen by Mr. Gottenbusch's brother, Greg,
vice-president, who also apprenticed in Germany and
specializes in pastries.
"Centralized baking ensures consistency from store
to store," Mr. Gottenbusch explained. "It improves
efficiency with centralized larger-run sizes. They provide
an opportunity to redesign equipment sets to match the
larger scale. Finally, the cost per square foot for retail
space is always higher than the cost of baking space."
Initially, he bought the automated twister to reduce
labor costs and overhead as well improve margins in the
burgeoning wholesale pretzel business. "We were running out of room at the commissary so we had to find another building to just handle our wholesale business," Mr.
Gottenbusch said. "The new bakery freed up a lot of space
in our commissary to help grow that side of the business."
Then in 2014, before the new facility was ready, large
orders began to pour in. First, a deli merchandiser for

The divider/rounder can
produce up to 8,000 dough
balls an hour, or more than
enough to feed the current
automatic pretzel line and
any future expansion.

Redefining speed to market
Gary Gottenbusch takes a retail baker's philosophy when it comes to developing new
products for a wholesale market. In fact,
new concepts are often developed and test
marketed at the family's 14 retail bakeries.
Feedback is almost instantaneous.
"We call it 'fail fast - fail cheap,' but don't
stop trying," said Mr. Gottenbusch, president
of Pretzel Baron's wholesale division and the
family's retail business, Servatii Pastry Shop
and Deli. "We can have an idea for a new
product on Monday, have our skilled bakers
work up a demo and recipes on Tuesday,
then do some 'seat of the pants' financials
and sample the product with the management team with the product originator on
Wednesday."
On Thursday, the company checks ingredient and packaging needs, then develops
promotional posters and a brief sell sheet
for its sales associates. On Friday, the product is baked off, and on Saturday morning,
the retail bakeries are sampling it.
"Most important, our store managers are
collecting feedback from our customers,"
Mr. Gottenbusch said. "By the following
Monday, we are ready to review the results
from the weekend on our new product."
Innovation is best when returns on success are greater than the costs of failure.

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