Back in 1996 when Bakery Director Scott Fox came to DLM, our Cake department consisted of four ladies who worked in a 330-quare-foot room. As our Bakery business began to grow, so did our Cake department. (If you have ever enjoyed our signature buttercream frosting, you know why.) There seemed to be something missing though. At the time, we were purchasing a very high quality pre-made cake from an outside vendor. We started thinking, why don’t we just bake our own cakes? We started experimenting, and after a few months had a plan for space, ovens, and staffing.
In 2005 we opened Central Bakery. Initially, it was opened for the sole purpose of providing the Cake department with freshly baked cakes. Since then we have blown past capacity, baking so many yummy selections that we are out of space!
Back in the tiny room where the cakes were decorated we added more and more staff to accommodate the growing demand, eventually ramping up to 14 associates. And yes, they worked in the same 18×12 foot space in three different shifts. As you can imagine, even when they weren’t busy the decorators were like bumper cars in that little room. If someone was making a large wedding cake, it would take up a large part of the room and thus put a strangle hold on making pre-made “grab-and-go” cakes as well as filling customer’s orders. In early 2013, we knew we needed to make a change. We had to have a new facility.
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