Rise Baking Company
Rise Baking Company is working to bring a handful of successful regional bakeries to a broader audience, including recent investment into its artisan bread process. For the full story, see “Rise Baking Company furthers its reach into the artisan bread market.”
NONE
New French Bakery first opened for business in Minneapolis during 1995. Over the ensuing two decades, its founder catalyzed significant expansion of the business, eventually capturing a strong percentage of the artisan bakery market in the Twin Cities area and beyond. Arbor Investments, a food and beverage private equity firm based in Chicago, was on the lookout to acquire an artisan bread brand, and New French Bakery was a perfect fit. New French is now part of Rise Baking Company, based in Minneapolis. And with the capital Arbor Investments has dedicated to expansion, Rise Baking Company is now ready to further its reach into the burgeoning U.S. artisan bread market.
NONE
The market for artisan bread continues to expand. The New French Bakery brand historically has a strong focus on retail take-and bake sold in the in-store bakery, as well as parbaked breads for foodservice customers, such as its demi baguette, a perfect size for splitting between two people.
NONE
Rise Baking Company’s ciabatta loaf is a free-form, crusty bread that’s stretched and elongated to produce large air pockets, giving it an uneven and chewy interior.
NONE
Mike Schultz, CEO, also notes that line’s capacity for automated scoring helps enable a high level of consistency—as well as unique, potentially differentiating, looks. As demand for artisan breads increases, so does the desire for diversity. The new line can create sharable, pull-apart artisan bread products, as well as greater flexibility in terms of baguette and bun/roll production. Rise Baking Company’s multigrain dinner rolls feature six grains, including ground oats, barley and rye, giving them a subtly nutty flavor.
NONE
Jeff Getzkin, senior vice president of sales, Rise Baking Company notes that company representatives regularly sit down with key customers and ask, “What are we doing right? What are we not doing that you want? Where can we put our resources?” It takes time to build new business strategies, and Rise Baking Company wants to make sure that it’s hitting those marks and creating a two-way conversation to grow together. The company’s baguette, with its chewy crumb and thin, golden crust, is a core offering. The baguettes use a poolish starter and have a long fermentation time
NONE
Rise Baking Company runs artisan breads at two locations in Minneapolis, with one sporting a brand-new, automated line. But Rise Baking Company has been careful to stay flexible. “I’ve seen a lot of our competitors over-automate,” says Brody Lynn, partner, Arbor Investments, Chicago.
NONE
The new Rise Baking Company artisan bread line’s flexibility helps the company offer a wide range of potential products. “We wanted a line that was capable of producing the full breadth of product forms, so when we go into a customer, we can sell anything and everything artisan,” says Eric Ahlgren, chief operating officer, Rise Baking Company. “Other benefits include improved throughput, lower scrap and more capacity.”
NONE
Arbor Investments has acquired a range of companies to form Rise Baking Company. In addition to New French Bakery (artisan bread and rolls), Rise Baking Company has also added core products from Best Maid Cookie Co. (baked cookies and frozen cookie dough), Hudson Baking Co. (crispy bars) and South Coast Baking Co. (frozen cookie dough).
NONE
Rise Baking Company’s crispy bars are a great fit for the convenience store channel. Flavor options include Marshmallow, Peanut Butter, Fruity, Sea Salt Caramel, Birthday Cake, Marshmallow with M&M’s Candies and Chocolate Marshmallow.
NONE
Rise Baking Company also offers a wide range of cookies, including Chocolate Chip, Chocolate Chip with M&M’s Candies, Peanut Butter, Snickerdoodle, White Chunk Macadamia Nut, Oatmeal Raisin, Chocolate Chunk, Sugar, Monster, Milk Chocolate Chip, Milk Chocolate Chunk, Peanut Butter with Reese’s Pieces.
Continued growth at Rise Baking Company is expected. “We have the opportunity to organically grow Rise Baking Company to over $500 million in sales,” says Schultz. “We will selectively automate where we can to ensure improved product quality, food safety and/or improved costs. We will continue to upgrade equipment on a recurring basis to stay ahead of our competition.” But in terms of product selection, Rise Baking Company and Arbor Investments think they’ve hit the sweet spot. Beyond selectively adding a few efficiencies here and there, the company is settling into a period of growth. “We want to grow organically,” says Brody Lynn, partner, Arbor Investments, Chicago. “This platform has a lot of long-term growth potential.”