Meet Sasha Crescentini and Dawn Martel of Bakeology and Gramercy Bakery in Torrance

Today we’d like to introduce you to Sasha Crescentini and Dawn Martel.

Sasha and Dawn, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I was in college studying Communications and to be honest, I was unhappy. I didn’t feel like I was thriving or enjoying my studies. I spoke to my dad, a long time entrepreneur and he told me to look out for a spark or something that lit me up while at the same time providing a service to others.

A few months later, it hit me as I was baking a birthday cake on the weekend at my mom’s house. I realized that baking for others lights me up and makes people happy. That was the spark I was looking for.

I began experimenting with unique flour blends, non-traditional vegan fats and developed a formula to replace regular flour, butter and eggs with healthier alternatives without sacrificing flavor. The “clean label cookies” I developed turned out to be a huge hit with friends and family.

In the meantime, my mom, Dawn, was very close to opening her dream restaurant. She is a master cook and baker who was trained by a French pastry chef as a teen. She was about to sign the lease on a space when my dad suggested we work together. We looked at each other with excitement, and Bakeology was born.

We began perfecting the formulas to be shelf stable naturally while maintaining delicious flavor. Along with finalizing the formulas came figuring out packaging, getting all of the right licenses, machinery, suppliers, etc. Over a period of about six months, we finalized branding, packaging, forming an LLC, getting our company name trademarked, etc. It was a messy, busy time, but we were able to maintain laser- focus.

Throughout this time, we began establishing relationships with a few local grocery stores. We’d walk into a store, ask for the buyer, and bring samples. The product was received really well and buyers were so generous with their time and advice.

Next on our list was figuring out a place to produce our cookies, After a long, unsuccessful search for commercial kitchens, my uncle told us about the Cottage Food’s Permit, which enabled small, shelf-stable, non-perishable producers to make their product in their home kitchen. We were all over it. We prepared for the inspection and passed! We were in business.

We were officially in business. We’d bake & pack on a Tuesday, and deliver on Thursdays. We had two customers and life was simple. We were in no rush to grow fast and knew we wanted to really fine tune our product and have gradual growth. The reason being we weren’t looking for outside investors, so everything was self-funded and we kind of wanted to ease into business rather than have huge overhead right away.

There were lots of small services that added up pretty quick: we hired a mutual friend to build the website, a baking assistant to help in the kitchen, a brand ambassador to do in-store demos, etc. and we were able to hit the ground selling our products.

We decided we needed to approach a distributor because we were running around town and tiring ourselves out. So, our great customer recommended us reaching out to a local So Cal distributor. We hit it off, and the rest was history. From there, we were able to pitch to bigger chain stores since we knew the distributor was able to deliver to more locations.

As we grew, we also realized we needed to invest in machinery. Hand scooping was not cutting it anymore. Our hands were in pain and we couldn’t keep up with orders. We did a lot of research and decided to test on a machine up in Canada. The machine worked great, and we made our first large purchase.

The machine allowed us to be slightly more efficient, save our wrists, and have more time to sell. Later down the line, the machine ended up not serving us as we needed a much more efficient machine. When I look back at this, I wish we would’ve invested in the bigger, more efficient machine initially.

In 2014, we moved to a co-packer. We were finally able to solely focus on marketing our product and adding retail partners. We were able to grow from 30 customers to 300 customers by January 2016. Our distribution was now national.

In 2015, my dad had another bright idea: let’s cut our costs and manufacture on a larger scale. My mom then had the idea to partner with the husband and wife team at our current co-packing facility, as they were looking for a new venture. In 2016, Gramercy Bakery was established. Bakeology is majority owner of Gramercy, which focuses on producing gluten-free cookies and bars for small & medium-sized brands.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Along our journey, we have learned many lessons and also how to wear many hats. Here are a few of them:

1. Don’t spend $35k a year on a PR Firm until you have national distribution and product readily available for purchase.
2. If you hire brokers, make sure to have monthly check ins and set very specific regional goals.
3. Attend trade shows and be prepared to write orders and show up with the appropriate marketing material for your industry.
4. Invest in machinery that will serve you in the long run not just the interim. You could be wasting a lot of $.
5. If you’re getting into the CPG industry, be prepared to be hit with slotting fees, charge backs, and free fills.

Please tell us about Bakeology and Gramercy Bakery.
Bakeology is a brand that produces, markets and sells clean-label Crunchy Cookie Bites to retailers, airlines, and food service accounts nationwide. Our Cookie Bites are Gluten-Free, Vegan, Non-GMO, Kosher, and most importantly: delicious. What sets us apart is our use of high-quality ingredients, no preservatives, and a competitive price point. We donate 1% of profits to a foundation called 1% For the Planet, who disburses our donation to a different environmental cause each year. We really enjoy giving back to foundations who are reviving the land & saving the orangutans who are on the verge of extinction from palm oil harvesting.

Gramercy Bakery is a dedicated gluten-free & kosher, state-of-the-art co-manufacturing facility who specializes in producing cookies and bars for brands of all sizes. We are committed to serving our customers and maintaining excellent standards in quality control and quality assurance.

What are you striving for, what criteria or markers have you set as indicators of success?
Success to me is the ability to do what you love, achieve your daily goals, and make a positive impact on this world. I love that I’m able to spread sweetness in the world through our plant-based creations, and also tread lightly on this planet by manufacturing a vegan product.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.bakeologysnacks.com
• Email: sales@bakeologysnacks.com
• Instagram: Bakeology
• Twitter: Bakeology

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