In Print » July 2011 » Features » Retailer Profile

Vermont Governor Peter Shumlin, King Arthur Flour Flour (KAF) CEO Steve Voigt, KAF Vice President and General Manager Karen Colberg, KAF Director of Human Resources Suzanne McDowell, KAF Director of Infrastructure Steve Cochran, KAF Chief Financial Officer Susan Renaud and KAF Senior VP/General Manager of Flour Michael Bittel break ground on The Baker's Store's expansion.

Norwich, Vt., is a little town off Highway 91 and the Connecticut River that's home to 3,800 residents. But each year, more than 250,000 visitors come to town for one reason: to shop The Baker's Store, the retail store for King Arthur Flour. v Since the store opened in 1992, it's become a pilgrimage for serious bakers and baking enthusiasts visiting the Green Mountain state. v 'We see people from all over the world, literally,' says Allison Furbish, web media coordinator at King Arthur Flour. v These days, visitors who come to The Baker's Store, the café and The Baking Education Center are getting glimpses of the major expansion that's underway. On June 15, King Arthur Flour broke ground on an overhaul of Camelot – the name of the 16,600-square-foot , 12-sided, castle-like structure that's home to the Baker's Store and Vermont Public Radio. (The company's fulfillment center and corporate offices are a couple miles away.) The estimated $8- to $10-million project will not only double the size of the building where the store and café are located, but also unite The Baker's Store, café, bakery and classrooms into one energy-efficient space that will accommodate the company's ongoing growth.

Customers shop The Baker's Store for everything from bakeware to cookbooks, and can stop at in-store café for a beverage.

Also included in the remodel are larger and improved classrooms, and a viewing area for shoppers to see the goings-on in the bakery and classes. More space will be allocated for the retail store and café, which will expand from 5,000 to 8,000 square feet. An outdoor patio and deck also are part of the redesign. The Baking Education Center will increase from about 2,200 to 4,000 square feet, while the bakery will increase from about 2,300 to 3,600 square feet. Throughout the project, all bakery, retail and educational operations will continue.

The Baker's Store At a Glance Owner: 250 employee-owners of King Arthur Flour Number of Stores: One retail store plus an online e-tail site and print catalogue Location: Norwich, Vt. Year Founded: The first Baker's Catalogue was printed in 1990; The Baker's Store opened in 1992 Store Size: 5,000 square feet (including café and kitchen) Number of Employees: 36 for the retail store; 24 for the catalogue, test kitchen and merchandising team Website: www.kingarthurflour.com

The expansion is scheduled for completion in July 2012, before the pre-holiday baking season begins.

For the company, 'It has been a dream of ours, long in the making, to create a facility where our visitors can fully experience our passion for baking – whether through taking a class at our Baking Education Center, watching our artisan bakers in action, enjoying lunch at our café or shopping at our Baker's Store,' states Karen Colberg, direct division vice president and catalogue general manager at King Arthur Flour.

A Focus on Education
On average, The Baking Education Center hosts about 25 classes a month. Some are half-day, hands-on classes for home bakers, while others are multi-day intensives for professional bakers. At least one professional-level class is held each month. Most classes are for adults, but a few are oriented towards children.

Gadgets are among the core offerings for The Baker's Catalogue and The Baker's Store.

More students of all levels are participating. In 2010, 4,618 people took classes at The Baking Education Center, up from approximately 3,000 in 2009, Furbish notes. The most-sold-out subject is Woodfire Baking, which is on the schedule every month.

'It surprises me,' Furbish admits. 'Most people don't have a woodfire oven at home.' But maybe that's the reason the home bakers sign up – to do something different, she adds.

Yeast bread classes of all kinds are always popular.

'Yeast bread is hard area for a lot of people,' Furbish points out. 'Yeast is a living organism (that requires specific care and attention to thrive). The best way to learn is to handle it and feel it. With cakes, you just follow directions. With yeast baking, it's a matter of feel.'

That's also one of the reasons the company offers a baker's hotline, a toll-free number that stressed bakers can call to get free professional help. The company takes its hands-on help on the road, too. At its traveling baking demos in select U.S. cities, staff members conduct free baking workshops that address two problem areas for many home bakers: yeast breads and pie crusts.

Meanwhile, at The Baking Education Center, classes dedicated to whole grain baking are in demand.

'Everybody wants to eat a lot healthier,' Furbish says.

In addition to its staff of professional bakers, The Baking Education Center hosts guest instructors. Gesine Bullock-Prado, a professional master baker, Vermont resident and best-selling author, taught two classes at the Baking Education Center in May. Bullock-Prado, who is also the sister of Oscar-winning actress Sandra Bullock, posted her upcoming classes on Twitter, and they sold out in minutes. An instant response is unusual, Furbish admits, adding that Bullock-Prado's loyal followers precipitated the sell-out.

Promotion
All divisions of King Arthur Flour are promoted through Facebook, Twitter and the Web. But through trial-and-error, the company's team has learned what works best.

'On Facebook, I used to post the sandwich and soups that were available that day in the café,' Furbish says. 'It was not giving the desired effect.' Instead of luring in nearby residents, far-flung fans of the company would comment, she explains.

Free samples bring in the customers, notes Kelly Mousley, director of customer experience, who has used social media tools successfully to entice willing tasters for free cupcakes. When the bakery was reformulating its cupcake icing, she invited locals to come sample and fill out brief surveys on the product.

'It brought in a bunch of people,' Mousely says.

Upcoming classes, new items in the catalogue, and new additions to the company's baking mix and gluten-free lines are promoted using social media. Plus, social media is a great way to create community, for bakers to connect with the company and also with other bakers. Oftentimes, fans will post pictures of their creations.

The Birth of a Catalogue
In 1990, P.J. Hamel, was hired to create The Baker's Catalogue, which originally was a 5x7-inch, black-and-white publication.

'The catalogue started in response to our customers wanting to get our flours where our flours were not on supermarket shelves,' Colberg explains.

Long Live the King: The History of King Arthur Flour Celebrating a centennial anniversary is a landmark occasion few companies achieve. But 221 years is almost unheard of. Only a handful of domestic gourmet companies – Pfaltzgraff (1811) International Silver (1808) and book publisher John Wiley & Sons (1807) – can boast reaching the bicentennial mark. Here are some highlights from King Arthur Flour's history: King Arthur Flour was established in 1790 in Boston as a flour importer. In 1986, the company moved to Vermont. In 1990, the company published its first Baker's Catalogue. Two years later, The Baker's Store evolved because people didn't want to pay shipping, explains Brinna Sands, who wrote the 200th anniversary cookbook, in the online video detailing the company's history. So in 1992, a small section in the warehouse was dedicated to direct-to-consumer sales. In the 1990s, the company introduced its line of baking mixes. In 1993, King Arthur Flour was sold in 11 states. Today, it can be found in all 50 states. In 1996, King Arthur Flour became a 100 percent employee-owned company, when Frank Sands instated the employee stock ownership program. The current location of The Baker's Store and Café opened in 2004. In 1996, the company launched its first website. Since 2006, King Arthur Flour has been named to the annual list of Best Places to Work in Vermont.

Initially, the catalogue sold flour, grains and baking tools. Fast-forward 21 years, and the catalogue – now a four-color, full-sized publication that's published 14 times a year – hasn't strayed away from its roots. (Hamel works in the test kitchen, has authored and co-authored three of the company's cookbooks, and blogs regularly for the company's website.)

'We discovered and found, in terms of function, this is what we wanted to be from the start,' Colberg says.

Tools for home bakers are a staple of the catalogue. One of its perennial best sellers, listed in the first edition, is the Danish dough whisk that aerates while mixing and 'can be used on everything from a simple batter to heavy doughs,' explains Deb Powers, director of merchandising. 'It is designed to require less manpower, less force and less energy.'

Other best sellers are baking essentials such as yeast, sourdough starters, storage containers and measuring items. About 40-50 percent of the products available in the catalogue are proprietary to the company, Colberg notes.

'The business around artisan bread baking has been core to who we are,' says Colberg, adding that during the last two years, there has been a resurgence in at-home baking. 'Even during the recession, home bread baking has been gaining popularity.'

And The Baker's Store and The Baker's Catalogue have become trusted sources. For one reason, all of the catalogue's products are tested by the staff.

'Whether it's a product, ingredient or tool, all products go through a testing phase through the test kitchen,' Powers explains. 'We have home bakers (who are employed by the company) test it, and folks on the merchandising team test it – most all of them bake.'

Appliances, in particular, undergo rigorous testing to ensure that they meet the standards of The Baking Education Center and home bakers. Making sure these bigger items pass their standards results in happy customers and fewer returns of broken small electrics, Powers notes.

When it comes to buying products for the catalogue and store, the team sticks with its proven winners.

'We're not constantly trying to reinvent the wheel,' Powers explains. 'We look to the past to see what has worked and what hasn't worked. We're not always looking for the next best thing, we're looking for what works. We're not a trendy company.'

The Store
The store's tie-in to the catalogue is evident from the moment one steps in the door. During The Gourmet Retailer's visit in March, a St. Patrick's Day display, inspired by the catalogue, was located just inside the entrance.

'We focus on integrating the catalogue into the store,' Furbish says. 'Once you walk into the store, you make the connection with the catalogue immediately. It's part of our one-company, one-brand philosophy.

'We're doing so many things – manufacturing, retail and catalogue,' Furbish continues. 'We want to make sure they all look like King Arthur Flour. Company-wide, we're trying to unify all areas of the business.'

The catalogue as well as the store's displays are inspired by baking holidays and the calendar, Powers points out. In the store, more seasonal items are featured.

The company's full-line of flours, baking mixes and gluten-free baking mixes are showcased to the right of the entrance. The center of the store features catalogue-inspired displays with cross-merchandized items such as cookbooks and gadgets tied together with a unifying theme.

Visitors to The Baker's Store discover a highly edited selection of baking products, most all which are available through both the catalogue and website. In addition, the store carries some exclusive seasonal and hard-to-ship items, Colberg notes.

Centered around home baking, the assortment of specialty food and kitchenware products include Nielsen Massey Vanillas, spices and baking ingredients; baking pastes from American Almond; Saf and Red Star yeasts; Peanut Butter Co. peanut butter; local honey and jams; baking books, including gluten-free titles; Waring waffle irons; Emile Henry bakeware; Viking stand mixer; two Zojirushi bread machines, the Home Bakery Supreme and the Home Bakery Mini; an array of textiles; Microplane graters and lemon zesters; RSVP's Herb Snips and Blending Fork; an array of jimmies, cake-decorating tools, baking pans and baking papers; cupcake-decorating tools from Cuisipro and Kuhn Rikon; and soup mixes from Bountiful Pantry and Frontier Soups.

Towards the rear of the store is a counter where baked goods, whipped up from King Arthur Flour's baking mixes, are sampled daily. It's adjacent to the café and retail bakery that's stocked with breads, pastries, cookies and pizzas that are baked onsite.

Across from the café, refrigerated units offer cold beverages and a few additional items, including Vermont Creamery's Cultured Butter with Sea Salt Crystals and Vermont Smoke & Cure's Pepperoni.

The store's inventory of Vermont-made products has been 'reigned in the last few years,' Furbish notes. 'We whittled them down to a manageable number of products.' Previously, the store sold non-baking related items such as hand-knitted socks, explains Furbish, adding that 'The socks were great, but our space is precious.'

When the expansion is complete, The Baker's Store will add a small selection of wines, spreads and cheeses for customers to enjoy on the outdoor deck or as a picnic on the grounds, Colberg notes.

With more than 250,000 customers annually, they'll need plenty.

Editor’s Note: corrections made July 14, 2011

- KAF Senior VP/General Manager of Flour Michael Bittel’s name was corrected
- The Baker’s Store is located off Highway 91.
- King Arthur Flour moved to Vermont in 1986,(not 1978) and its first website went online in 1996.
- The dough whisk, pictured above, is Danish, not Swedish.