Executive Summary
There is an unmet demand in the Boston south shore area for French pastries and a place that allows one to unwind in a buttery, flaky croissant and a cup of aromatic coffee. Keegan Kreations aims to be the neighborhood bakery and café that serves its customers with pastries and drinks of the finest quality.
With less than $9,000, Thim (Keegan) Yee and his wife, Yilin Chen, started Keegan Kreations in September 2017. We have been selling at farmers markets, holiday markets, and pop-ups in the greater Boston area and south shore. With only 12 four-hour sales days a month, our website, and minimal marketing efforts on social media, we are averaging $4,583 revenue per month in the last 12 months, up to $11,600 per month.
The Keegan Kreations Bakery and Café will be serving freshly made croissants, tarts, cakes, cookies, and espresso drinks. In addition to retail, we will continue to sell online and at farmers markets, and we plan to wholesale our products to local coffee shops. Keegan and Yilin expect to run the operation with the help of 3 part time employees. Keegan graduated from Johnson and Wales University in Baking and Pastry Arts and has 8 years of experience in professional kitchens at various hotels and restaurants. Yilin has a background in hospitality and last worked at the five diamond Wheatleigh Hotel in Lenox, MA.
The Market
According to the Small Business Development Center Network Retail Bakery Business Overview & Trends - 2017 report, the U.S. bakery industry includes more than 2,800 commercial bakeries with a combined annual revenue of about $30 billion, along with about 6,700 retail bakeries with annual revenue of about $3 billion.
The Bakery Business market research report summary from IBISWorld forecasts that as the economy recovers and disposable income increases, revenue for these bakeries is expected to grow at an average annual rate of 0.6% over the next five years to $39.9 billion. Consumers are expected to continue trending toward healthy eating and increase demand for items like fortified breads, gluten-free loaves, and sprouted and organic sweets. Profitability for individual bakeries is determined by efficiency of operations. Keegan Kreations aims to gain a competitive edge by offering specialty goods and superior local distribution. Keegan Kreations creates products that support current industry movements.
Target Market
● Busy professionals with disposable income
● Millennials
● Retirees
● Stay-at-home parents
● Have lived or traveled to Europe, specifically France
● College and graduate students
Product
At Keegan Kreations, we offer freshly-baked pastries. Our production cycle will ensure that customers always have freshly-baked goods available to them.
Our products include pastries, cakes (both whole and slices), brownies, cookies, tarts, pies, and hot and cold beverages. We specialize in croissant and we have been selling around 15 varieties of pastries that feature our croissant dough. We put ourselves in the shoes of our customers when developing our products. For instance, we considered that with every bite of our Double Chocolate Croissant (Pain au Chocolat), a customer tastes the same amount of chocolate ganache. We believe that the description of a pastry should properly represent its taste – the flavor of almonds is boldly featured in our Almond Croissant and that of lemons in our Lemon Blueberry Danish. We recognize that our price point is higher than the average pastry shops and yet our customers still come back, knowing we do not sacrifice quality or taste.
We will also offer a broad range of coffee and espresso products provided by Barrington Coffee, a local New England roaster. In addition, customers may choose from a selection of Harney & Sons tea. Customers will have the option to get a cup or a pot of tea to enjoy at the table.
