DILLON, MONT. — Great Harvest Bread Co., a bakery cafe concept that mills its own wheat every morning, will exhibit its “hub and spoke” franchise model at the 2017 Multi-Unit Franchising Conference set for April 23-26 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Great Harvest said it plans to use the event as a platform to showcase the company’s growth plans and strategies throughout the United States.
The hub and spoke franchise model is set up so that a franchisee can control and develop an entire region, Great Harvest said. As part of the model, one Great Harvest bakery serves as the primary distributor to multiple bakery cafe-only units in town within the territory. Additionally, bakery locations feature ovens and space to produce and deliver hand-milled bread to nearby cafe locations throughout the day.
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| Eric Keshin, president of Great Harvest Bread |
“Big chains in the bakery segment have one big location every 10 or 15 miles that don’t bake breads fresh,” said Eric Keshin, president of Great Harvest Bread. “These chains are par baking from frozen loaves that are mass-manufactured by machines. They don’t mill the wheat berry in-store and make everything from scratch like we do.”
Founded in 1976, Great Harvest operates more than 200 locations across the United States, all of which offer breakfasts, sandwiches, grain bowls, soups, salads, pastries and desserts. The average cost to open a Great Harvest bakery cafe is about $315,000, the company said.
