Emmer Bakeries

Case Prompt

Our client is Emmer Bakeries, a premium cake and pastries restaurant chain with approximately 3,000 locations throughout the United States. While they’ve enjoyed consistent profitability and are an industry leader in direct-to-consumer cake and pastries sales, their revenue has been stagnant over the past few years.

What can they do to improve their gross revenue?

Case Overview

• Emmer Bakeries operates under a simple business model of owning and operating all of their own stores, procuring ingredients from various suppliers throughout the country, and processing/serving the cake and pastries at individual locations.
• They serve only soft-serve cake and pastries and other products (croissants, cakes, bread, etc.)
• Revenue last year was at $250K/store [$750M], and they would like to improve gross revenue by 33% in 1 year [$1B target].

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General response summary

The candidate’s framework should consider: improving baked good sales (marketing campaign, expanding outside of the United States), offering a new product (dessert or non-dessert), utilizing a new sales channel (selling to grocery stores), consumer preferences, etc.

Sample Framework

• Product
  • New product lines
    • Sugar-free/ No added sugar
    • Dairy-free
  • Introduce new fillings
    • Permanent fillings
    • Seasonal, temporary fillings
  • New in-store offerings
    • Savory foods (appetizers)
    • Coffee / affogato
    • Scan consumer trends
  • Consumer Insights
    • Identify/expand to new demographics
  • Promotion
    • Paid marketing
      • Run online ad campaigns
      • Location-based marketing (OOH, local TV stations, etc.)
    • Organic marketing
      • Partner with influencers
      • Social media campaigns
  • Place / Location
    • New sales channels
      • Packaged cakes for groceries
      • Sell products at other restaurants
    • Introduce new stores
      • Expand presence in U.S.
      • Expand to international stores
      • Low-footprint stores at stadiums/airports/etc.
    • Innovate current stores
      • Add service windows
      • Renovate interior design