Bakery Suppliers: How to Select Bakery Suppliers and Vendors

Bakery Suppliers: How to Select Bakery Suppliers and Vendors

Bakeries come in all shapes and sizes, with all kinds of different menu offerings. They may be purely grab-and-go for pastries and baked goods, a grocery for bread and other sundries, or more of a place to get a coffee fix. Whatever it is your bakery does, though, suppliers will play a key role in your success.

The global bakery industry grossed more than $480 billion in 2022 as demand has risen for third spaces to work and socialize, as well as locally-sourced baked goods. It’s a great time to open a bakery, or to make smart assessments about how your existing bakery functions. Whether you’re imagining more of a cafe, coffee shop, or strictly a bakery format, you’ll need outstanding suppliers to keep your menu quality high and your costs low.

Suppliers are one of the most important factors in your bakery’s profit margin and how much you can expect your bakery to make. Finding the right ones will make a huge difference in the quality of food and service you can offer to your customers.

In this article, you will learn how to find bakery suppliers that ensure your baked goods stay delicious while limiting your overhead.

The importance of bakery suppliers

Let’s explore the suppliers that bakeries need.

• Food and beverage suppliers are the lifeblood of any food establishment, but especially bakeries. You’re whipping up confectionary magic, so you need extraordinary amounts of flour, sugar, and other baking ingredients. You’ll also need a range of more specific (potentially costly) ingredients, and beverage suppliers depending on whether or not you sell coffee, smoothies, alcohol, or other beverages. Ingredients will be one of your biggest costs, so you have to find the best supplier for your needs.

• Equipment suppliers and repair suppliers ensure you have what you need to run your bakery. Of course, you’ll need ovens, stovetops, and other kitchen equipment, but there are also industrial mixers and a range of bakery equipment that can make your life easier. And you’ll need to maintain and repair those items when they break down.

• Menu suppliers offer a unique way to incorporate your bakery’s branding into your floor experience. A great menu shows off your bakery’s concept and mission, resonating with customers both in-store and online.

• Laundry suppliers can save time and help maintain a high standard of cleanliness by filling your various laundry needs.

• Technology suppliers ensure your bakery stays atop restaurant technology innovations that can save you money, time, and stress.

Essential bakery suppliers

Let’s discuss some of the most important things to consider when looking for suppliers.

Food and beverage suppliers

Your bakery can’t function without quality food and beverage suppliers, so you have to think long and hard before committing to a relationship. Here’s what to consider.

Menu needs

Every bakery is different, from the types of baked goods and confections they offer to the beverages they serve. Your food and beverage supplier must reflect what you serve on the menu. You may even need multiple suppliers to meet the different demands of your menu. (Just make sure the cost is justified.)

Sales volume

The worst part about food waste is that it costs business owners money. (It’s also not great for the environment and just an unfortunate thing when there are so many people experiencing food insecurity.) 

Bakeries are famous for tossing out “day-olds,” but it’s in your best interest to limit that waste as much as possible — especially when it comes to ingredients. Your sales volume on specific items will dictate how much supply you need of certain ingredients so that you don’t waste food or money.

Restaurant reporting and analytics tools and inventory management solutions by Toast can help you determine the right order volume and frequency.

Delivery requirements

Between your schedule, your storage space, the frequency with which you go through ingredients, and the particularities of your location, many factors could impact deliveries. You should communicate your delivery requirements clearly with any potential supplier to make sure they can meet these demands.

Equipment suppliers

Bakeries have significant equipment demands, especially as they grow. As such, you need to think carefully before choosing just any equipment supplier.

Consult your menu

Many supplier considerations come down to your menu, but most bakeries have a similar baseline of equipment needs. From ovens and refrigerators to dishwashers, mixers, and food processors, bakery-focused suppliers should have everything you need to make your baked goods.

If you over more than simply bread or confectionaries, you might want a grill for sandwiches, a blender for smoothies, or who knows what other equipment. It all depends on what you want to sell, which likely goes back to your business plan and the ideas you had when you first conceived of this bakery.

Measure your space

You might want absolutely every piece of fancy equipment you can get your hands on in your bakery. Unfortunately, you’re limited by space. Your bakery’s floor plan has a significant say in what kind of equipment you can actually put in your bakery. Just like when you move into a new home, you have to measure thoroughly to know what kind of equipment will fit in the space.

Consider new vs. used

Buying used equipment could save you money in the long run as opposed to leasing newer equipment. Many equipment suppliers prefer to lease new equipment since it’s the most expensive and it’s a way to get recurring income each month. That may work for your business, but buying lightly used equipment outright may be a better use of resources. That way, you own the equipment outright and won’t need to budget for another monthly expense.

Menu suppliers

Your bakery may not need paper menus. If you do opt for them, though, consider these three things when looking for a menu supplier.

Your bakery concept

A chalkboard or billboard by the bar might make more sense for your bakery. But if you do want paper menus, they should tie in neatly with your bakery’s concept and branding.

From a logo to your bakery’s preferred fonts, a menu should reflect the brand guidelines you’ve developed over time and appeal to your core customers. And most importantly, it should neatly and clearly organize menu items so customers can figure out what to order or understand any special instructions they need to order. (Can customers dress their own pastries, perhaps?)

You should also ensure that there’s flexibility for menu engineering should you need to make changes to the menu based on strategy or availability of ingredients.  

Durability

There are all kinds of sweet, sticky things floating around bakeries that could cause damage to your menu. Make sure your menus are durable and won’t need replacing every other week. Suppliers can provide a test run on menu durability before you commit.

Aesthetics

Your menu is an integral part of your marketing strategy as it’s one of the primary ways customers interface with your business. Even when they’ve made it so far to pick up a menu (or look at one online), your menu has to get a customer to finish making a purchase. As such, your menu should look attractive and clearly showcase why your bakery is different and worth a customer’s money.

Laundry suppliers

A bakery goes through a lot of aprons, towels, and rags. You don’t want to bring them home and wash them yourself, so you should shop for laundry suppliers.

Laundry requirements

As we just touched on, most of your laundry requirements will be related to the kitchen. (Unless you run a white tablecloth kind of bakery.) Your staff may also wear a T-shirt, apron, or some other kind of uniform, but chances are you won’t need anything dry cleaned or any kind of sophisticated service. As such, you should be able to find a local or national laundry service fairly easily.

Budget

If your budget is really tight, you could just do the bakery’s laundry yourself, or have a washer and dryer put onsite. Most bakery owners, however, won’t want that extra responsibility or have the extra cash to buy a washer and dryer. As such, your budget will be a big factor in who you decide to hire as a laundry supplier.

Reputation

Laundry is a personal thing, even if it’s for a business. You don’t want somebody to do a bad job! Do your due diligence before hiring a laundry supplier just as you would before any significant purchase. Online reviews and first-person testimonials are great resources.

Repair suppliers

It’s possible that your equipment supplier includes maintenance or warranties on equipment as part of your lease, so before you hire a repair supplier, make sure you don’t have these needs already addressed. Otherwise, it’s time to think about the following.

Equipment expertise

Again, your equipment supplier is probably uniquely qualified to service the equipment that it’s leasing to you. That said, if they don’t, you want to find repair suppliers with significant experience working with bakery equipment like mixers and ovens.

Reputation

Your bakery’s equipment is foundational to your operations, so you want to make sure you’re hiring the most reputable repair supplier possible. Again, do your research via online reviews and first-person testimonials before committing to a contract.

Reliability and speed

A repair supplier’s reputation is likely directly related to reliability and speed. As long as a major piece of equipment is out of service, your bakery is probably losing money, so your repair supplier must be fast and reliable. If a supplier doesn’t come highly recommended, it’s probably because they are neither fast nor reliable.

Technology suppliers

There are so many types of restaurant technology that have changed how different restaurants operate. Technology suppliers can streamline your operations, save your business money, and save you from major headaches. It can even help your business grow. But only if you’re using it wisely.

A strong restaurant technology provider, such as Toast, is essential for helping a bakery optimize operations. Everything from a point-of-sale (POS) system built for your needs to automated staff and payroll management tools can all supply tech-driven optimizations to your restaurant.

Toast also makes it easy for your bakery to innovate, with self-serve options like kiosks, online ordering, and QR codes that can streamline the way you do business and serve more customers.

How to find bakery suppliers

It’s not hard to find bakery suppliers. There are so many bakery suppliers out there, they’ll compete for your business. Finding the right ones is just a little more difficult. Here’s how to do it.

Online directories and marketplaces

If you’re not sure where to get started with your supplier search, just use Google. There are myriad marketplaces and online directories that appear when you Google “bakery suppliers” or “bakery suppliers near me”. Using these online resources, you can connect with suppliers, gather quotes, and start to narrow down some options for your business.

Industry associations and trade shows

We’ve often mentioned in this piece the importance of getting first-hand testimonials before hiring bakery suppliers. Well, industry associations and trade shows are great places to do just that.

Local bakery associations may have existing relationships with suppliers, but at the very least they’ll have some knowledge of the local suppliers. Likewise, trade shows offer a great opportunity to meet suppliers and speak to other bakery owners about the suppliers they use. You’ll learn who to avoid, and who is most worth your time.

Cold-calling and prospecting

It’s unlikely that you’ll have to cold-call or prospect for bakery suppliers, but it doesn’t hurt to be as thorough as possible. If you really want to compare all options, make some calls to let suppliers know you’re looking and try to get their best offers. You can use multiple quotes as leverage to get the best deals possible for your business.

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Every bakery needs great suppliers to ensure they can make the best baked goods possible at the lowest overhead. That way, they can offer the best prices to their customers. With so many bakery suppliers out there, it’s important to take your time and carefully outline your needs before committing to anyone. Figure out your menu’s needs, your budget, and the specific requirements of your business to ensure you get into the best supplier relationships that you can.