Baking & Snack - November 2023 - 18

" CORE PRODUCTS ARE STILL THE CORE PRODUCTS -
TRADITIONAL WHITE BREAD AND WHEAT. "
Justin J. LeComte, Gold Medal Bakery
" We can't be shut down because of commodity outages. "
The company has increased its warehousing space for
many of its commodities.
" We have days, weeks-worth of production in ingredients
in storage, " Mr. LeComte said. " For smaller commodities
as well. We work closely with our [commodity]
advisers to stay on top of things. "
At the same time, Gold Medal has
stepped up communications with customers
to " make sure they understand
the length we are buying out, in some
instances, " he said.
Gold Medal has been careful not to
impose sudden, large price increases
on customers, and in some cases, has
not fully reflected cost increases in its
pricing, Mr. LeComte said.
" The transparency was the biggest
part about pricing, " he said. " The private label
bread market is highly price sensitive. We
worked to keep pricing inside the 'saving' range for
Jason J. LeComte,
Gold Medal Bakery
consumers. Sometimes you have to bear the brunt of the
higher costs as well. "
The challenge for Gold Medal is not simply that
prices are up but that they have been very volatile, Mr.
LeComte said.
" I wouldn't want to be on the spot market right
now, " he said. " Since 2019, flour prices are
still up about 30% even though compared
to 2022 prices are down 60%. The insane
highs and lows are hard to combat
at times. "
Discovering ways to innovate and
building " paths to customers " will be
goals for Gold Medal in 2024 and beyond,
Mr. LeComte said.
" One priority is finding ways to be
more efficient with our routes, " he said.
" That's another reason we want to increase
our saturation in channels where we sell. The
objective is to stop less and drop off more at the
Tasos Katsaounis,
Bread Man Baking Co.
same time for greater efficiency. "
Efficiency also has been and will continue to be pursued
by the company in its production lines.
" Robotics is where we need to play - bringing robotics
into packaging and post-production, " he said. " We've
started to make serious efforts in this area. "
He said the company has completed an initial rollout
of robotics and is in the middle of additional projects.
18 Baking & Snack November 2023 / www.bakingbusiness.com
Challenges include figuring out how to package, box and
sticker products.
Starting from scratch
If Gold Medal is one of the older bread baking companies
in the United States, Houston-based Bread Man Baking
Co. certainly is among the newest, established in 2017.
The company's founder and chief executive officer,
Tasos Katsaounis, had learned to bake bread as a
child. The eldest child of a Greek immigrant family, Mr.
Katsaounis' mother was unaccustomed to white bread
when she came to the United States and found rustic
bread to be too expensive. She baked bread at home, and
Mr. Katsaounis learned the craft as a 10-year-old.
A graduate of Penn State University, with a degree in
business management, Mr. Katsaounis' baking skills sat
dormant for a lengthy period while he advanced in a career
in management consulting.
" I wasn't satisfied with my career and was considering
a change, " he said. " I began baking bread again, after
having not baked for so many years. I did it as an escape
from my career - the stress and dissatisfaction. "
What began as an outlet turned fairly quickly into a
change of profession.
His first customer in July 2017 was a local hotel, and
soon afterward, other independent restaurants and hospitality
groups with a few locations also began asking
for samples.
In late 2017, the new company moved into a shared/
kitchen commissary, and a year later, leased a larger,
5,000-square-foot space to expand production.
Whole Foods Market became a customer in 2018.
Initially, Bread Man offered a range of natural fermented
artisan products - sourdough batard. It became
clear that Mr. Katsaounis needed to offer a broader
range of products for the business to grow.
" I wanted the business to succeed and realized that
I also needed to bake a bun, a hoagie, a pullman loaf, "
he said. " I discovered we needed to be a one-stop shop.
So we needed brioche and challah buns. You can't be
a bread baker in Texas without a burger bun, without
Texas toast. These are products that pay the bills. "
Bread Man's growth continued at a dizzying pace
through COVID, despite the fact that most of its business
was either foodservice or hospitality.
" The city of Houston shut down, and 78% of our business
was foodservice, " he said. " The other 22% was sold
in 12 Whole Foods stores. "
During the height of the pandemic, Bread Man was
Gold Medal Bakery and Bread Man Baking Co.
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Baking & Snack - November 2023

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