bake - January 2012 - 36

and interlacing your talents with their trade can profoundly inﬂuence the relevance of both participating companies. This advice is applicable to any small-business owner — and it doesn’t mean Facebook-friend your community’s businesses and call it a day. Wholesaling to local businesses is most commonly perceived as an avenue that can lead to developing consistent and reliable clientele. More notably, you can lend your business’ specialties and strengths to improve the quality of your peers’ operations. Also, it allows you to simultaneously showcase the caliber of your product to their customers. It acts as a subtle pitch for your bakery. The development of these relationships should be less concerned with proﬁt-seeking and more invested in securing your company’s local footing, relevance and support. Small wholesale accounts If you are operating from only a handful of retail locations, small wholesale accounts can be an efficient way to market your products beyond your storefront. For instance, Psycho Donuts in Campbell, CA, has intertwined their enthusiasm for making high-quality
Schat’s Bakeries and Cafes, surrounded by wine country, wholesales to a number of local wineries.

gourmet donuts with a number of local organizations. Surrounded by the wineries of Northern California, the eccentric donut shop adventurously fashioned a specialized donut to pair with wine samplings at local wineries, Poetic Cellars Winery and J. Lohr Vineyards. “Picture four donut holes that are all fused together as one, and each piece of the four is designed to pair with a different wine,” Jordan Zweigoron, chief psycho, says. “We developed this idea more for the camera. Then, we had a live event at Poetic cellars that was attended by local press, and the interest and phenomenon of donuts paired with wine just ended up all over the place.” Zweigoron isn’t describing a lucrative or quickly profitable strategy, but focuses more on ﬁrmly rooting his product’s credibility in his community. Ultimately, these multi-business and community-based projects require increased labor, creativity and specialization, along with equal collaboration between two businesses that may share little in common. If the concept is a creative coupling of ideas that also appeals to consumers, then you have tapped into a chance to attract more customers to your product and your peer’s store. Recylcing money in your community Largely due to out-of-state corporations and franchises, capital can quickly slip away from small communities. Non-traditionally supporting and collaborating with other local businesses is a productive initiative to prolong and increase the cycle of cash in your community. Business exposure Exposing your brand to new customers is one of the most valuable aspects of wholesaling to local businesses. While the transaction may not immediately show proﬁtability, teaming up with other businesses can help amplify your relevance to your community. “It’s exposing a bunch of people to our product who didn’t know about who we were. And in that case, when you look at it as a single project, it’s quite a bit of work and not a highly proﬁtable endeavor,” Zweigoron says. “I look at it as more of a marketing vehicle as opposed to being a wholesale vehicle.”

36 < JAN 2012 | bakemag.com

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bake - January 2012

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