Today we’d like to introduce you to Bran’Arla Johnson.
Bran’Arla, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
My background has always been in sales and client support. I graduated from the University of Illinois with a BS in Business Administration and spent most of my career in the telecommunications industry. I always had a passion for cooking and one day owning my own restaurant. After the constant mergers and acquisitions and changes in the industry, I knew that it was time to start my own business.
After being laid off in 2009, I decided to go back to school and pursue my MBA at Olivet Nazarene University. during this time, I began working on my business plan and I even owe my cohorts credit for their ideas and suggestions along the way. While attending school full time, being a single mother of two daughters, I put the wheels in motion to create the brand and the business that we call “Classic Cobbler”.
As I will go more into the business side later, my family and I pulled together our resources and started the business without any business loans and open the doors to our retail store in November 2010.
Has it been a smooth road?
Yes, there has been struggles and challenges along the way but in a good way. Our goal was never to become a bakery. I wanted to distinguish our desserts as homemade, preservative free and made with all fresh ingredients. In addition, I wanted the customer to feel the love we put into our pies.
With that in mind, costs of supplies are high and the work can be quite manual but over the years, we have perfected our processes and reduced costs. In addition, we found that our retail store was a great start to introduce the business, but, I realized that this business model would not serve us long term. As you enter the market with a new brand and name, it helps to partner with companies like Whole Foods and other retailers.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Classic Cobbler story. Tell us more about the business.
Classic Cobbler is a family run specialty pie business that started out of our kitchen. We began making fruit cobbler, pies and cakes for social events and family gatherings. As the demand for our desserts began to grow, we decided to open a retail establishment in the south suburbs which remained open for 5 years.
After careful business planning, I decided to close the retail portion and focus on wholesale and online customer sales. I was able to get a contract with Whole Foods stores which is the main sales point for our fruit cobblers. Our primary store is the Whole Foods is the South Loop store which is the largest Chicago area store. In addition to wholesale, we cater many events in the Chicagoland area and partner with several organizations such as Real Men Cook.
More recently, our cobblers will be featured at the Taste of Chicago 2018 as a one day vendor on July 12th. Many find it hard to believe that we make our own crust by hand and roll it out for each and every cobbler we make. Our brand is unique, distinct and was built on the freshness and smell of our homemade goods. As far as next steps, my goal is to take Classic Cobbler to additional stores and distribute our cobblers in the frozen food sections at several retailers.
We would like to give our customers that experience by allowing them to bake our pies out of their own kitchen. I do plan to open another retail location in the next year in Chicago and become a part of the growing Hyde Park/Washington Park communities. Classic Cobbler has been featured in the past on WGN, Windy City Live and Black Enterprise Magazine.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I have studied the pie industry and I truly believe there has been a shift from the days of cakes and cupcakes. Many of the younger customers are experiencing the taste of pies for the first time and we are still attracting the older, mature customers who remember what it was like to smell a fresh pie coming out of the oven.
Our market is expanding and as Bakers Square has become more commercialized and more concentrated in the suburbs, we aim to keep our ingredients fresh and preservative free and remain in the city and more trendy areas. As customers become more health conscious, we also offer sugar alternatives and gluten-free pies to stay current with the needs of the market. Pies and cobblers are being introduced in a new way and we are definitely growing and here to stay!
Pricing:
- Our cobblers range from $13 to $70 depending on the size and the type of fruit.
- Our pies average $15 – $20
Contact Info:
- Website: www.classiccobbler.net
- Phone: 888-769-4627
- Email: classiccobbler@sbcglobal.net
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/classiccobbler/
- Other: www.linkedin.com/in/classic-cobbler
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