bake - October 2019 - 10

practical marketing

Craft at Scale
Raul Porto, owner of Porto's Bakery & Cafe in Los Angeles,

Yelp reported that last year Por-

traces his family bakery's biggest move to 2003 when they

to's Buena Park location (opened

expanded their Glendale, California, location to include a cafe

in 2017) was the most photographed

and coffee bar.

store in America, beating out the fountains at The Bellagio in Las Vegas.

"That was the moment that, all of a sudden, sales blew up,"
Porto told attendees of special RPIA Group session during the

In the early years (Porto's opened its ﬁrst store in 1975), the

International Baking Industry Exposition (IBIE) in Las Vegas.

bakeries were 3,000 square feet. The newest locations are

"Our food business doubled, and our pastry increased 20%, and

at least 21,000 square feet, and Buena Park is 28,000 square

that was a larger part of the business. The mixing of bakery and

feet. In addition, they operate a 57,000 square foot commis-

food was the biggest thing we ever did."

sary, which Porto said is already pushing capacity. "Your size
gives you tremendous advantages," Porto said. "The bigger the

And "automation allows us to grow," he added, noting that

stores, the more exposure you get."

Porto's now produces its famous potato balls at its central
commissary for 5 cents apiece, compared with 50 cents apiece

During the 2003 expansion into food, Porto recalled that

before by hand. Further, the company recently installed a bun

monthly sales leveled out to the point where there was little

and roll line from WP Bakery Group and operates a line of

change from summer to winter. August became one of the

140-quart Hobart continuous mixers with a depositor on the

busiest for sales. From there, everything turned golden.

end of the line for automated sponge cake production.
cess since day one," he said. "We have a nation where food

prices low. We try to keep the lowest prices we possibly can,"

is becoming more and more important. I don't think there's

Porto said. "We look at anything and everything we can think

been a better time to be in our business. People are search-

of to save costs. Our pastries are so inexpensive that people

ing for unique and independent stores. The demand for

come out loaded with many bags. Our customers are actually

great products is out there. That's why price and quality are

marketing for us."

really important."

Today, Porto's Bakery & Cafe operates ﬁve locations in the Los

Above: Speaking at a special RPIA Group session at IBIE, Raul Porto, owner of

Angeles area (with a sixth scheduled for 2021) and serves more

Porto's Bakery & Cafe in Los Angeles, shares the incredible story of how his

than 10 million customers a year, making it arguably the largest

family bakery grew from a single location in 1975 to arguably the largest retail

retail bakery in the country. The operation has 1,600 employees.

bakery in the country, with plans to open a sixth store in 2021.

10 < OCT 2019 | bakemag.com

PORTO'S, JOHN UNREIN

"The last two stores we opened have had incredible suc"One of the reasons we have automated so much is to keep our

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bake - October 2019

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