Today we’d like to introduce you to Bill Skeens.
Prairie City Bakery is a wholesale bakery that sells fully baked frozen thaw and sell great quality Baked Goods.
The business was started by two former executives at Sara Lee Bakery (Bill and Bob Rosean) who got tired of corporate life and the frustrations that came from it being easier to sell a customer on an idea that it was the company (or to get them to do what the customer wanted).
After a year, his original partner left and he carried on to expand and sell bakery goods across the country.
The products all had to solve a problem or have a reason to exist and each product had to make them say WOW!
Today, they are sold in every state in about 30,000 locations. Their most popular items are called Ooey Gooey Butter Cakes. They are so popular they were getting hundreds of calls or inquiries about where they could buy them. They put up a store locator on their website at www.pcbakery.com/storelocator. All you need to do is put in your Zip Code and it will give you directions to stores all across the USA!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It is not easy starting a business from Scratch. From the very beginning, we have always worked hard to satisfy our customers with innovative products that have a reason to exist… and that is better than anything out there.
We have a simple one word Mission Statement and that is “WOW”. We know that if it makes us say “WOW”!, our customers will say WOW. If they do we know our message is getting through.
Our first products were called Muffin Tops. We were the first company to take that idea Nationally.
Interesting Women got the idea right away as they would always say “YEAH, that’s the best part of the muffin and the only part I eat” Meanwhile guys would say, you’re cheating me… where’s the rest of the Muffin. Ha!
This was 4 years before the famous Seinfeld “Muffin Top Episode”. They even used our slogan ‘Top of the Muffin to You’ as the name of their Muffin Top Shop. 20 years ago, it was difficult to educate the public about what a Muffin Top was as there was no internet to make an idea go viral. When Seinfeld came out, with their episode they did overnight what we had been trying to do for 4 years and we were off and running.
People said, I should have sued them. I’d tell them… sue them?… I want to hug them as everyone knew what a Muffin Top was after that and we were off and running. Ironically we now make over 100 items but we stopped making Muffin Tops about 8 years ago as for us they had run their course.
So, as you know, we’re impressed with Prairie City Bakery – tell our readers more, for example, what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
At Prairie City Bakery, the story is a simple one. We provide our customers with premium-quality, great-tasting bakery goods, and simple and effective merchandising solutions. We help you sell more, so we sell more.
Prairie City Bakery was originally founded in 1994 by Bill Skeens and Bob Rosean (both veterans from Sara Lee Bakery Foodservice) with a very simple premise in mind: to “WOW” the customer. Bob moved on, but Bill and a great management team of experienced bakery professionals continue today with a focused entrepreneurial spirit and a passion for the customer.
We began with only one product, Muffin Tops, later made famous by the Seinfeld Show. Today, we offer more than 100 delicious products, including Down Home Cookies, Big Cinnamon Rolls, Coffee House Danish, and Muffins, Premium Donuts, Brownies, Ooey Gooey Butter Cakes and Walkin Wafels. We also offer a full line of Bulk Bakery items that you will find at top quality Gourmet Coffee Shops.
We have won product-quality awards from the American Tasting Institute for our Cookies, and have been awarded Best New Products of the Year (Big Cinnamon Rolls, Big ’n’ Fudgy Brownies and Donut Holes To-Go) by trade journals. The real judges we are most proud of, though, are our customers who “vote” every day with their hard-earned dollars and continue to support the aggressive growth of Prairie City Bakery.
Prairie City Bakery can be found at approximately 30,000 locations nationwide, including quality-oriented foodservice stores, convenience stores, and chain drugstores nationally.
Our number one product is our Ooey Gooey Butter Cakes and we now offer 7 different varieties (Original, Lemon, Cinnamon, Sea Salt Caramel, Chocolate Chip, Key Lime and Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip.
You can also find our Chocolate Chip Cookies and Big N Fudgy Brownies at Wrigley Field as for the last 10 years we have been the “Official Cookie of the Chicago Cubs”
So, what’s next? Any big plans?
We want to continue to be innovative and creative and to be focused on our customers and their needs. If you satisfy your customer’s needs, it’s amazing and they reward you with more business.
We have trademarked the words, “Bakery, Simplified” as we want to make it simple to buy and simple to sell.
We just came out with an All Natural Authentic Belgium Waffle which we call “Walkin’ Wafels”. They are whole wheat and made the “Liege way” with Brioche dough and real pearl sugar. It has 16g of whole grains, no artificial colors, flavors or preservative. They are available in Blueberry, Buttery Maple, Vanilla and Apple Cinnamon. In Belgium, waffles are street foods eaten as a snack while walking down the street. Ours needs no syrup, no for, and no mess.
Based on popular demand, our customers have requested them so they can use them as a sandwich carrier which we now make and can be used for an egg and sausage or bacon waffle sandwich or a chicken and waffle sandwich. You can even make a dessert waffle sandwich with ice cream and strawberries or with Nutella. YUM!
Contact Info:
- Address: Prairie City Bakery
100 Fairway Drive, #138
Vernon Hills, IL 60048 - Website: www.pcbakery.com
- Phone: 847-573-9640
- Email: customerservice@pcbakery.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PrairieCityBakery/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Prairiecitybakery/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/pcbakery
Getting in touch: VoyageChicago is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
