Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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says. "This customer was very particular. It took a long time and a lot of back and forth, but I finally figured it out." Tom and Ted's open-minded dedication to their customer's request gave the team the scone recipe that would form the basis of their whole specialty food business. From Bakery to Bag Despite having developed the perfect scone, Tom and Ted were still struggling to stay afloat. To keep up with wholesale demand, they hired more people, eventually ending up with 14 employees by 1989. "Not only did we have bakers on site, we had employees who went out into the business neighborhoods, selling baskets of pastries. At that point, it was pretty obvious that we weren't going to make it," Ted states. To simplify the production process, they created pre-made mixes for their bakers, but the team still found themselves working from 4 a.m. until 10 p.m. every day. The moment they got back from making deliveries, orders were coming in for the next day. So they came up with an idea. By making their recipe easy on their bakers, they had also made it easy for customers at home. They could tweak the mix to a just-add-water recipe, package it up, and sell it wholesale. It was a risky idea: At the time, there weren't that many specialty food stores—and even fewer packaged baking mixes on their shelves. Undeterred, the team approached the manager of their local Cost Plus World Market, and offered to do demonstrations for cus- tomers every Saturday morning. Their gamble paid off, and product started f lying off the shelves. But they still had a lot to learn. For nearly three years, Tom and Ted continued to operate the retail bakery and the specialty food business at the same time. Nights were spent putting labels on bags in front of the television. "We were making so many mistakes. We were tying the little baggies ourselves," Tom laughs. Their hard work paid off in 1992, when Cost Plus ordered Sticky Fingers mixes for their 40-plus stores. It was a vote of con- fidence that freed Tom and Ted to sell the retail bakery and move Tweaking the Recipe For the first month, the bakery was slammed with customers. Then the pace started to slow—between the two local bakeries, people were getting burned out on cinnamon rolls. "When we did the demo- graphics, we didn't understand that it was the same people," Tom explains. "The customers started coming in and asking, 'Are you going to do muffins or anything else?'" They quickly responded to the requests and expanded their offerings into a wide range of baked goods, including cookies, muffins, and croissants. But that October a recession hit, and Ted and Tom had to innovate yet again. To increase their revenue, they started selling wholesale to local hotels and Starbucks stores. One day, a customer walked in and asked if they'd be willing to develop a scone for him. Tom was ready for the challenge. Though he didn't have much experience with scones, he knew exactly how to workshop a recipe with a customer to make sure the bake was right. "I remember going to the library and looking up scones," Tom producer profile By making the recipe easy on their bakers, they had also made it easy for customers at home. They could tweak the mix to a just-add-water recipe, package it up, and sell it wholesale. 126 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com TOM OWENS AND TED VOGELMAN Age: Owens is 66, Vogelman is 67 Years in specialty food: Both 30 years Favorite food: Mexican for Owens, Maryland crab for Vogelman Least favorite food: Both say this doesn't apply! Last thing I ate and loved: Fish tacos, say both If I weren't in the food business I'd be: Fly-fishing as much as possible, say both One piece of advice I'd give to a new food business: Feedback from you customers is essential information and will intuitively lead you down the right path, says Owens. Have a product you are proud of, focus on customer service, grow slow but steady, says Vogelman. Tom Owens Ted Vogelman