Bakery.com E-Newsletter | August, 2014

Grandma's Bakery Shares Organizational Ideas

As a bakery manager, have you ever found yourself solving a problem more than once? Maybe you're looking for the source and price of that odd ingredient you used two years ago, or you forget the short cut that made holiday production run so efficiently last year? John Lupo, owner, Grandma's Bakery, White Bear Lake, Minn. had this problem until he made a better organizational plan for his bakery. "Write it down. Document it. You will run into the problem again," said Lupo, who presented his ideas for organizing a bakery for profitability at the Atlantic Bakery Dairy Deli Expo in Atlantic City, N.J. Grandma's Bakery, a full-line retail and wholesale bakery, has been owned and operated by the Lupo family since 1978. Today employing a staff of 125 people, the Lupos have learned a thing or two about bakery organization.

Here are a few examples of Lupo's bakery organization tips:

• Maintain an "oddball supply guide" where you keep paperwork for ingredients and supplies you've only ordered a few times.
• Keep files of formulas you want to keep from trade magazines or bakery associations.
• Develop a training guide for employees that documents the steps for every process, from washing hands to cleaning the restrooms.

Read more about John Lupo's organizational ideas for bakeries »

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