Weigel’s new bakery facility is now open for production.
An array of daily delivered fresh bakery products to help Weigel’s compete at breakfast, snacking occasions.
By Erin Rigik, Senior Editor
After eight years in the foodservice game, Weigel’s is upping its bakery offering with help from its newly-opened bakery facility that now creates proprietary fresh baked products for the c-stores.
Weigel’s launched the new bakery program on May 21. The program features three kinds of cookies, glazed and cake doughnuts, filled doughnuts, fritters, a Long John bar doughnut and muffins, all made fresh and all branded under the Weigel’s name.
“We wanted to offer a larger product that was made fresh daily,” said Ken McMullen, president, Weigel’s told CSD. “We currently operate a dairy and distribute multiple products to our stores, so it was an easy marketing decision to introduce a bakery program with our premium coffee and dairy heritage, and also the logistics of our stores makes the program a simple addition.”
All of Weigel’s stores are located within a 50-mile radius of its corporate headquarters in Powell, Tenn. To accommodate the new bakery program, Weigel’s debuted a new bakery facility, which opened for operations on May 1, in West Knoxville, Tenn. The proprietary bakery facility measures 6,000 square feet and produces the company’s fresh baked products, which are then delivered daily to the stores.
The new program isn’t Weigel’s first attempt at bakery, although it is its first Weigel’s branded bakery initiative. “We had Krispy Kreme deliver to our stores prior to our new bakery program. We felt the need to introduce a signature branded product,” McMullen said.
Today, the doughnuts are branded Weigel’s and are prepared in Weigel’s propriety bakery facility, along with the other baked products.
“The program has been in effect for 45 days, and is performing at or above our projected expectations. We now offer doughnuts in 44 of our 62 locations and plans are to have the program in 54 locations,” McMullen said.
With the program successfully launched, Weigel’s is turning its attention to ways to grow and expand its offering, including plans to introduce new bakery products, including seasonal doughnuts. “We also plan to pre-pack bulk candy, trail mix and other items in our bakery facility and deliver to our stores in the near future. The bakery is another step in our goals to continue to vertically integrate our company,” McMullen noted.
For more information on Weigel’s new bakery initiative and current bakery trends, stay tuned to CSD‘s upcoming August issue.
