After 15 years as a California produce-shipping broker, Rob Roberts started looking for a business to buy.
Now he's making bread, thousands of loaves a week, at Breadsmith, 1617 32nd Ave. S. in Fargo.
"I knew I wanted to get back to a tangible product," Roberts said. "I've always enjoyed food. I was served Breadsmith bread in St. Louis (his hometown) in 2001. That's what started it."
He also wanted to return to his Midwest roots. In 1991, Roberts started working for R&R Transportation in Audubon, Minn., and moved to Moorhead in 1998.
He opened the Fargo Breadsmith franchise in August 2002 and today employs 16 full-time and part-time workers.
ADVERTISEMENT
His store annually uses more than 30,000 pounds of beet sugar, about 10,000 pounds of honey, well in excess of 300,000 pounds of different types of flours and about 8,000 pounds of butter, he said.
Q: What did you want to do as a kid? Did you ever think you would be making bread?
A: No. But I always knew I wanted to deal with people. That's one of the beauties of a retail bakery like this. I get to deal with people every day, whether it's here in the store, at farmers' markets or doing presentations to classes and groups.
Q: How many different products do you make?
A: Every week, well in excess of 40. No two days are ever the same. Each day has its own unique lineup.
Q: When does your day start?
A: The night before. We have people that come in at 7 o'clock Sunday night to start getting ready for Monday production. When you walk in the store on Monday morning, everything was just baked and came out of the oven since approximately midnight. So six days a week we're here 24 hours a day in one capacity or another.
Q: Do you make only breads?
ADVERTISEMENT
A: Cookies, scones, coffee cakes, breads, bars, pizza dough. We say pretty much everything but cakes and pies.
We also make every day at least two whole-grain breads. That's what we've done for years.
Q: What happens with unsold product?
A: At the end of every day, all of our yeast breads are donated to charity. So the only day-old bread you are going to find here is a crouton.
Q: Do you donate to more than one charity?
A: Daily Bread picks up from us four days a week. We've got another church that picks up two days a week.
And we also deliver to the Salvation Army and various convents.
Q: How many delivery vans do you operate?
ADVERTISEMENT
A: Depending on the day of the week, we can have up to three vans out delivering. We always have one van running around town delivering. We also deliver to farmers' markets from West Fargo to Detroit Lakes (Minn.), to Grand Forks (N.D.).
Q: What other types of businesses do you supply?
A: Currently we're supplying hospitals, country clubs, restaurants, coffee shops and, of course, food markets.
Q: Do you also cater events?
A: We do. We're doing Toast of the Town for example. We've looked at doing the Street Fair.
Q: What are your hours?
A: We are open six days a week. Monday through Friday our hours are 7 (a.m.) to 7 (p.m.), Saturday 7 (a.m.) to 4 (p.m.)
Q: Do you come up with your own ideas for products?
ADVERTISEMENT
A: Some we do. Breadsmith supplies us with recipes. This is a franchise that welcomes input from the franchisees. We've got a couple of things that have been accepted and now are offered throughout the Breadsmith stores.
Like Icelandic brown, for example, one that we got from the Icelandic Club in Fargo-Moorhead. It's a wonderful bread. It's loaded with butter, brown sugar, molasses and oats. We do it every other Thursday.
When they have the Icelandic Festival at the Hjemkomst Center every year, we bake the bread for them.
Q: What's your favorite?
A: I'm pretty simple in what I like. I tend to go for a French baguette or a ciabatta.
They are simple, crusty breads that I can enjoy with cheese, oil or wine - or peanut butter and jelly, too.
Readers can reach Forum Business Editor Craig McEwen at (701) 241-5502 Bread: The loaf of his life Craig McEwen 20071008
