Although Otis Spunkmeyer sells its products in convenience and retail stores, the brand’s main focus is foodservice, where Tyson Yu, chief executive officer of Los Angeles-based Aspire Bakeries, parent company of Otis Spunkmeyer, sees a lot of growth potential as the management team believes it’s an underserved market.

“We like that food-away-from-home segment,” Yu said. “We’re actually expanding the fresh-baked foodservice industry. ... It’s not just a slice of the pie or cake, we’re expanding the size of that pie.”

One of the big drivers of that expansion is the brand’s fresh-baked cookie program. Beau Netzer, president of foodservice for Aspire Bakeries, said Otis Spunkmeyer continues to put thousands of ovens into foodservice operations every year.

“We’re growing the category because we’re enabling an operation that’s not currently baking to bake with our oven program and bring fresh-baked cookies to consumers,” he said. “That’s become very powerful because it’s a big value driver for a foodservice operation. They can deliver a fresh-baked aroma and provide a halo for the overall food quality.”

The company talks about Otis Spunkmeyer’s lifetime brand engagement cycle in the noncommercial foodservice segment of the industry. Those are businesses that sell cookies and muffins, but food is not their primary point of business, such as stadiums, schools or hospitals.

The lifetime engagement starts with schools, where the brand is served in thousands of districts, Netzer said, and hundreds of colleges and universities. The brand also has a fundraising arm for school PTAs and other groups. Otis Spunkmeyer is found at hotels and airport lounges that offer warm cookies to guests, at stadium club suites and skyboxes, and it’s now working its way into more recreation spots.

“A big win we had recently was at a large ski resort,” Netzer said. “Imagine coming off the slopes. You’re tired, you’re cold, then you get a warm cookie right when you get to the bottom of the ski run. It’s fantastic. This is what Otis delivers. It’s like your friend who travels with you through your life.”

And hearing stories from soldiers deployed around the world who have enjoyed Otis Spunkmeyer products has meant a lot to Netzer personally.

“When you’re over in the Middle East and you’re serving, if you have an Otis muffin, it’s like a taste of home,” he said. “I’ve had former Marines tell me that it meant so much to them. It’s really a cool thing.”

The brand is also expanding at nursing homes and other elder care facilities and at hospitals serving patients and visitors, where the company sells pizza-sized cookies.

“We have a very high penetration in the health care sector. A program we just rolled out includes a celebration cookie kit,” Netzer said. “It’s almost the size of a pizza box, and it’s a big pizza cookie we deliver. You can order it to deliver to the patient’s room for the family.”

The extra-large cookies are also popular with smaller pizza chains interested in serving dessert as they can be baked in the conveyor impingement ovens and other ovens that are used for pizza. 

“There’s only so many kinds of desserts that work well for that prep method, and it must be something that doesn’t cause any operational stress for the pizza operations,” Netzer said.

In addition to serving full-service and chain restaurants, the recent elevation of foodservice within convenience stores has opened new opportunities for the Otis Spunkmeyer brand. 

Another important part of the business is vending, which has also changed a lot in the past few years and is now growing dramatically for the company, Netzer explained.

“It’s not just the traditional glass-front snack machines,” he explained. “What you see in airports now are micro-markets. That’s where you’re seeing this elevation in food quality. We have a range of high-quality individually wrapped Otis muffins, cookies and loaf cakes.”

This article is an excerpt from the September issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Aspire Bakeries, click here.