Susie's adds dining under the stars
Published:Sunday | June 27, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Pastry business diversifies to survive
Avia Collinder, Business Writer
Susie's Fine Baked Goods Limited in Kingston was formed 15 years ago when Susan Hanna began baking cookies, cupcakes and brownies from her home kitchen and selling to supermarkets and cafeterias with the assistance of husband, Raymond Hanna.
Today, the operation comprises three entities in Kingston.
The evolving bakery and a café-style operation has diversified to include restaurant services, offering dining and lunch delivery.
The company also supplies local supermarkets with pita bread.
Marketing manager and daughter of Ray and Susan, Amanda Hanna, says in the last two years, the company's operational costs have come in at about 75 per cent of revenue, resulting in the decision in March this year to move swiftly to reduce expenses by tweaking operations.
A new dining option was added last month as a new line of revenue.
The company also opted to shelve plans to expand, having found credit conditions strenuous and the economic climate poor. "Locally, borrowing requirements are extremely stringent. In the United States, there are better credit facilities," Susan told Sunday Business.
Amanda added that the company was streamlining its internal processes to improve service, while generating better returns.
"For example, before the recession, we used to sell a lot of rib-eye steak and salmon, but now we find that the bulk of our sales comes from the Tapas menu," the marketing manager said.
"As a result, we cut the dinner section of our menu and replaced it with a rotating dinner buffet."
Susie's has also tried to hold prices steady, even though it has experienced numerous cost hikes, including electricity.
"Although everything is going up, people are not earning more," Susan said.
The owner has not been replacing workers who have left within the last year, but has developed a staff complement of full-time and part-time workers numbering between 12 to 20, depending on the work to be done.
Amanda hopes that a new dinner buffet launched in May - promising patrons an evening under the stars - will boost trade by doing as well as existing breakfast and lunch buffets.
The flagship shop was opened in 1997 when Susan had saved enough money, "with little help from outside sources".
Said Amanda: "My parents worked tirelessly to accumulate enough money to open the first location in Southdale Plaza. My mother would wake up at 3 a.m. to start baking before waking my two brothers and me for school. Then, my father would take the goods to supermarkets and cafeterias and try to sell them. They also maintained two full-time jobs. It was a long, tiring process, but in the end, they accumulated enough to make a start."
The company's employees
Soon after its mid-town opening, Susie's Bakery & Coffee Bar was soon a favourite spot with an upscale appeal, serving a variety of freshly baked breads, pastries, sandwiches, hot and cold beverages, including smoothies and Blue Mountain coffee.
It also became the mid-town spot for long lunches or an afternoon coffee or tea.
In 2008, the restaurant was born. While financing the venture was not easy, just as problematic was establishing the company's niche in the local food and restaurant trade.
"We had a lot of trouble finding our identity," admitted Amanda.
"At first, we were just a bakery, until we realised cookies alone can't pay the rent, so we were forced to branch out into cooked food, which took the shape of hot lunches, breakfasts, Lebanese cuisine, sandwiches, and so on."
The increased cost of business has since forced the company to clarify its market.
"Eventually, with the help of JPS and its bottomless appetite, we were forced to diversify further, and, that is how The Terrace Bar came to be," said Amanda. "We have found that diversifying what we offer as a brand and at the same time streamlining our operations to create maximum efficiency forms the delicate line between success and failure."
Susie's has several different target markets, with the clients for Susie's Bakery in Southdale Plaza being people who work in the area.
"Ourlunch crowd is our strongest and hasbeen with us basically sincewe opened. They are the same people who will stop by in the morning for our breakfast buffet and a cupof coffee."
At The Terrace, the dinner crowd is mostly young professionals who stop by on their way home from work to take advantage of the $1,500 all-you-can-eat dinner buffet."It's cheaper than cooking at home, especially if it's just you and a roommate," Susan insists.
"Our décor is Euro-Mediter-ranean, our food is similar to what you'd get in the US, and our cocktails are straight out of New York City. so we really appeal to people's need to 'get away'," added Amanda.
For Susie's Daily Bread the target market is mostly "stay-at-home moms and ladies who lunch. It's small, set away from the main road and very relaxing. A perfect treat for a busy mom."
For the company, buffets are bestsellers; pastries are in heavy demand but margins are thin.
"Even though we sell a ton of pastry every day, our mark-up on pastry is low so we do not make much profit on baked goods - which is very ironic for a bakery," said Amanda.
She believes that 2010 will be the year when the company forms its full identity.
"Like a teenager, we've been steadily maturing over the last 15 years and I believe this year will be the year when we finally know who we are."
Susan isconsidering offering for sale branded products including the bakery's signature rum cake, a coffee and sauces, but says she cannot begin this project within the current climate.
"Every year brings its own set of problems, but we have managed to maintain steady sales figures for the last three years."