By Heather Collins
Great Harvest Bread Co., a 40-year-old bakery, is looking to expand into Carmel by offering “hub and spoke” bakery-café franchise opportunities.
The “hub and spoke” franchise model will include a single Great Harvest Bread Co. bakery and as many cafe-only units as the franchise owners desire throughout surrounding cities.
The company offers the “hub and spoke” model to keep the bread freshly milled and made from scratch. CEO Mike Ferretti said the business model makes it easy for individuals to manage their businesses while maintaining the company’s commitment to fresh, healthy food.
“While the rest of the world got used to mass manufacturing of processed bread, Great Harvest continues to mill high-quality wheat and bake bread fresh daily, and our customers love us for that,” Ferretti said. “We continue to grind wheat berries ordered from local Montana family-owned farms.”
The company says Great Harvest Bread Co. isn’t a chain but a link to an old-fashioned way of doing things that today seems very fresh. The company says they make bread “the way it was made in the Bible.”
Ferretti believes the business model will allow Great Harvest Bread Co. to outperform and out-cover the big-box bread-based chains.
“The evolution to the ‘hub and spoke’ model gives us the opportunity to go in to a market like Carmel with a strong brand capacity and further develop the café system within the area,” Ferretti said.
Local franchise owners are given the freedom to personalize the decor and menu items to suit the needs of their local market.
Menu items include breads, pastries, muffin, cinnamon rolls, grain bowls and deli sandwiches.
The average cost to open a Great Harvest Bread Company bakery-café is roughly $315,000.
For information, visit greatharvest.com.