bakingbuyer - May 2011 - (Page 74)

BAKER’S DOZEN Baker’s DOZEN Meet Zaven Ratevosyan, owner of Natalie Bakery & Pastry in Plano, TX, who has carved out a niche for cakes, cookies and pastries inspired by the food culture of Armenia where he grew up as a youth. He opened Natalie Bakery in the Dallas suburb of Plano in 1996 and, in addition to retail sales, supplies his signature cookies to more than 60 ethnic grocery stores across Texas. Zaven Ratevosyan came to the United States decades ago with a dream to continue the baking tradition of his family. Both his grandfather and father were bakers. Today, he continues the family tradition with his wife, Svetlana, brother Vardan and sister Mareta also working at Natalie Bakery. eggless cakes. For two years, I learned how to make an eggless cake, and it really tastes great. They sell for a very expensive price in the Indian stores. We make eggless cookies, too, now. 9.) How’s your cookie business? We make lots of cookie trays: 2 pound, 4 pound, 6 pound. At Christmas and other big holidays, we can sell about 500 to 600 cookie trays. try that is flaky and slightly sweet), Barazeh (sesame seed cookies). We make several kinds of baklava, the kind that most people know and a drier and lighter version that’s popular in certain parts of the Middle East. What we’re most known for are our cakes. 1.) So how’s business? Our business is good. The only problem we have is dealing with ingredient prices. 2.) Why not raise your retail prices? We don’t want to lose customers. I’ve seen others raise their prices, and they might lose 10% of their customers. You have to think about what your goal is. Right now, our goal is to get more customers. 3.) Who shops at your bakery? This is not a typical Armenian bakery. We have customers from Russia, Middle Eastern, India. Once people come in here, 95% stay with us. 4.) What’s your specialty? We make 14 kinds of cookies: Coconut, Raisin, Walnut, Nazook (an Armenian pas74 · BAKING BUYER · MAY 11 5.) What kinds of cakes? Our No. 1 seller is fruit cake. We put fresh fruit inside. Other top sellers are tiramisu, mocha, chocolate mousse, cappuccino mousse. 6.) What trends do you see in cakes? People don’t change the flavor they like best. They want the same cake, with better design. Now people are starting to buy fruit cake with nice decorations. 7.) Are your cakes filled? 100% of our cakes are filled. We have many popular fillings: strawberry, pineapple, mango, chocolate, tres leches, nut fillings. 8.) Any demand for cakes that suit special dietary needs? We have customers from India who want 10.) You also sell 1-pound cookie packages to ethnic grocers? How’s that going? We don’t make a lot of profit on that, but it’s good business. This is like advertising for us. People see our name on the package and then come into our bakery to buy more. 11.) Do you do any advertising? We started out spending a lot on advertising when we first opened. Now it’s word of mouth. We do three or four wedding cakes a week. For every wedding, we will get two to three new customers. Our new customers come from recommendations. 12.) What other products do you offer? We sell a lot of pastries and cakes: honey cake, black forest, napoleons, éclairs, Swiss rolls. 13.) What’s your philosophy on sampling? Sometimes we make a new product and give it to customers for free. If they like it, we continue to make it.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of bakingbuyer - May 2011

bakingbuyer - May 2011
EDITOR’S NOTE - The Bakery Showman
CONTENTS
INDUSTRY NEWS
APC/Crisco National Pie Championships
Caravan Launches New Website
National Honey Board Offers Bakery Formulas
Cake Boss Joins Get Back to Scratch
The Baking Channel
Preferment Primer
Birth of the Slider
Team USA Profile
Extremem Cakes
Macaroon Sushi
Think Outside the Bakery
Chocolate Mousse: Tips & Techniques
Get your Grill on
Effective E-Newsletters
"The Greatest Show on Earth"
Welcome Home
Getting to Know You
Brandon’s Cookies
Re-Cakes
Lessons Learned
Wedding Statistics
Efficiency in Motion
Syrups vs. Grounds
FEATURED PRODUCTS
PRODUCT SHOWCASE
MARKETPLACE NETWORK
AD INDEX
Baker's Dozen

bakingbuyer - May 2011