Milling & Baking News - March 13, 2007 - 26

2007 Baker of the Year

shop every day, La Brea Bakery is probing different ways to deliver bread to
the consumer to realistically accommodate typical schedules. In addition to fully baked finished products,
stores offer La Brea Bakery par-baked

loaves at ambient temperatures that
consumers may bake-off themselves
at home. It also has experimented with
selling frozen fully baked loaves.
"It's a new program with four items,"
he said of the frozen loaves. "We place

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26 / March 13, 2007

Milling & Baking News

special freezers adjacent to the in-store
bakeries. Also, people like hot bread,
which is why we combine this with the
ambient bread program."
Market ratios hold steady
Not only has the basic product
lineup held reasonably consistent in
recent years, but the overall customer
mix of La Brea Bakery also has held
steady over the past four years at a
ratio of 65% retail customers and 35%
food service.
Mr. Yamin estimated artisan bread
accounts for 13% of the current bread
market as measured in dollars, although he conceded that statistics on
the sector are difficult to pin down.
The company's sales have grown 20%
annually in recent years across all customer channels, and Mr. Yamin said no
significant slowdown is anticipated,
although maintaining a 20% growth
rate will be a challenge.
"Artisan baking's 13% penetration
of the overall bread market is not yet
enough," he said. "There has been an
evolution of greater awareness of highquality food that people consume."
While par-baked sales account for
about 90% of the company's business,
La Brea Bakery's heritage fresh baked
business in Southern California has
been holding steadily at 10% of sales in
recent years. Sales have been growing
solidly, and Mr. Yamin and his fellow La
Brea Bakery executives see the business
as important for the company's future.
"The fresh baking business is our
roots and continues to grow," Mr. Yamin said. "It's very difficult to be in,
but it is definitely part of our future."
The D.S.D. business is treated as
anything but a "poor cousin" within
the La Brea Bakery family.
"The D.S.D. bakery is the heart and
soul of La Brea Bakery, a living laboratory that supports new product development and test manufacturing," Ms.
Despard said.
Occupying 20,000 square feet, the
D.S.D. bakery was installed in 1992,
when it became clear the original site
next to the restaurant Campanile was too
small to meet demand. The D.S.D. bakery serves hundreds of restaurants and
retail stores in Southern California, operating 35 routes from Santa Barbara in the
north to San Clemente in the south.
The D.S.D. bakery is an effective and
efficient testing ground for products
that ultimately could be baked on a far
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Milling & Baking News - March 13, 2007

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