McCaffrey’s in-store bakeries and central bakery produce about 2,000 SKUs, including fruited cheesecakes (left) and holiday cookies.

About 70 percent of McCaffrey’s products are sold from service displays.

Major production at the in-stores is complete by 1 p.m., but products are baked throughout the day if needed.

by Marilyn Odesser-Torpey, contributing editor

At a Glance

• Headquarters: Langhorne, Pa.
• Management: Jim McCaffrey, founder/owner; Mark Eckhouse, vice president; Kevin Burns, bakery director; Marci Oteri, bakery department manager
• Market served: Bucks County, Pennsylvania and Central New Jersey
• Number of stores: 3
• Number of bakeries: central bakery plus 3 in-store bakeries
• Bakery size: central bakery, 800 sq. ft.; in-store bakeries production space, about 970 sq. ft.
• Product line: full line bakery specializing in custom decorated and specialty cakes
• Production methods: cake layers, scratch/mix; muffins, frozen batters; artisan breads, par-baked doughs and DSD; cookies, scratch; brownies/bars, scratch/mix
• Major equipment: spiral mixers, reversible sheeter, rotary rack ovens, proofer, refrigerators, freezers, computerized decorating machine, cake image projector
• Plans: Continue scouting for appropriate areas for additional locations, add freezer space in commissary for layer cakes

In February 2004, McCaffrey’s Supermarket in Yardley, Pa. burned to the ground when a randomly tossed cigarette outside set a bush, then the 34,000-sq.-ft. building, ablaze. While the store was totally destroyed, the fire couldn’t destroy the customer loyalty that McCaffrey’s had built over more than two decades.

Although there were other supermarket options close by, a large number of customers chose to support founder/ owner James McCaffrey’s efforts to keep his business going by almost immediately setting up a temporary facility in a 10,000-sq.-ft. tent in the parking lot. Equipped with refrigeration, electricity, plumbing and air conditioning, the tent cost about $550,000 to erect and allowed McCaffrey’s to provide customers with their favorite upscale products, including signature cakes, cookies and other ovenfresh bakery items for 11 months.

Keeping the bakery products coming, particularly the custom cakes for which McCaffrey’s was so well known, took some juggling on the part of the company’s commissary, located less than 10 minutes from the Yardley store. Usually, the 800-sq.-ft. facility supplied only volume items to the Yardley store and its two sister markets in the Central New Jersey towns of Princeton and West Windsor.

Although the availability of a number of signature items kept McCaffrey’s bakery in consumers’ minds (and mouths) during the building of the replacement store, the commissary could only produce a fraction of the market’s total line of breads, cakes and pastries. Because limited supply limited sales, bakery revenues dropped by half, to around $14,000 a week. The opening of a donut chain close to the store also eroded much of the Yardley location’s breakfast sales.

But by the time McCaffrey’s reopened in Yardley, with a brand new 40,000-sq.ft. building, total store-wide sales quickly jumped to close to 80 percent of their pre-fire levels, reports company Vice President Mark Eckhouse. Today, he says, levels are closer to 95 percent.

Current revenues for the three stores total around $3.5 million; broken down by store, $1.25 million comes from Yardley, $1.35 from Princeton and $940,000 from West Windsor. Bakery sales account for between four to six percent of total sales at all the stores.

McCaffrey had opened his first supermarket, part of an existing major chain, in northeast Philadelphia in 1980. He sold that store in 1985 and, the following year, opened the Yardley market, the first one under the McCaffrey’s name. Princeton followed in 1992, West Windsor in 1996.

The stores generally carry around 2,000 bakery SKUs. Most of the items are produced in-house, either in the commissary or the stores. As before the fire, the commissary has gone back to producing only volume items, such as cake layers, petits fours, bars, cheesecakes, apple cake, butter cookies, pound cake loaves, and white and buttercream icings.

The in-store bakeries perform the majority of finishing, from coloring the icings and glazing the cheesecakes to piping icing roses onto petits fours and custom decorating specialty and wedding cakes. McCaffrey’s in-house commissary bakery program began in 1990 with one baker producing brownies, bars and basic cakes. Sheet cakes and layers were outsourced until about three years ago. Today, production in the central bakery remains 50 percent scratch and 50 percent mixes and bases.

Limited equipment fits in the commissary space, so the staff of three full-timers and two part-timers turn out products six days a week with only a revolving oven, stove and mixer. Demand for sheet cakes and layers has grown beyond the capacity of the two walk-in freezers, which the bakery shares with the fresh foods commissary operation, Eckhouse says. Additional freezer space is on McCaffrey wish list to further improve production efficiency.

McCaffrey’s also carries a variety of crusty and other specialty breads and rolls, including baguettes, French and Italian loaves, raisin walnut, Kalamata olive, tomato basil, sunflower and Jewish rye. Half of the breads are brought in fresh daily from a New Jersey bakery; the other half are frozen par-baked loaves that are finished at store level.

“Our philosophy is that if we can find the quality and value our customers expect from another supplier, we don’t have to make those particular items,” Eckhouse says. “If we can’t find products that meet our standards, we make them.”

Bakery Director Kevin Burns, who heads up the commissary, also is constantly working to develop new items. A recent success has been McCaffrey’s Chocolate Lace cake, an 8-in. round chocolate cake topped with cinnamon bun schmear. The cake is sold simply topped with a drizzle of chocolate ganache or split and layered with buttercream.

Each in-store bakery has an average of five production employees. Bakers arrive at 4 a.m., decorators at 6 a.m. Major production is finished by about 1 p.m., but “there’s always someone around to run the oven” to bake fresh loaves, cookies and other products throughout the day, says Yardley Bakery Manager Marci Oteri.

Though the stores are not very far apart in terms of geography, some of the product preferences differ significantly between the Pennsylvania store and its New Jersey sisters, Oteri explains. For example, pound cake accounts for about 80 percent of cake sales at the Yardley store, but layer cake is the top seller in New Jersey. When it comes to bagels, which are outsourced, New Jersey shares New York’s taste for big, dense and crusty, while Yardley customers like theirs in the smaller, leaner Philly style.

“It’s an important difference for us,” says Oteri. “And it’s an example of how McCaffrey’s makes sure to look closely at and respond to the specific wants and needs of our customers at each of our stores.”

The in-store operations are equipped with vertical mixers, reversible sheeters, proofers, rotary rack ovens and decorating equipment. The bakery sales area displays packaged self-service products, such as butter cookies, pound and loaf cakes, muffins and other pastries. Although the packaged items create a festive atmosphere and extensive impulse and grab-and-go opportunities, they only comprise about 30 percent of available bakery products. Most items are displayed in service cases.

Service first
“Our customers like to shop our cases,” Oteri says. “And they like the personal service.”

Despite the large numbers and varieties of bakery products available in the stores, waste is not a major issue for McCaffrey’s. Eckhouse estimates that only about three percent of product is lost to stales.

One of the keys to McCaffrey’s growth to date has been the company’s ability to match its stores and products to its community, says Eckhouse and “cement our niche in the community.” Additional stores may be in the company’s future in other similar communities. “Our customer base is generally made up of professionals, highly educated, ages 35 to 66, average income $90,000 to $95,000, who are on the cutting edge of food and more focused on value and quality than on price,” according to Eckhouse. James McCaffrey and his team are determined to choose new locations carefully.

“At first, we made sure we matched ourselves to our communities,” he explains. “Now we’re looking for communities that match us.”

McCaffrey’s. . . a sampling of prices

Vanilla confetti cake, 60 ozs. ...............................$13.95
Triple Celebration cake, 60 ozs. ...........................$19.99
Strawberry shortcake, 52 ozs. .............................$13.99
Jewish apple cake, 32 ozs. ..................................... $6.49
Plain cheesecake, 36 ozs. .....................................$11.99
Raspberry Chambord cheesecake, 38 ozs. ..........$16.99
Ricotta cheesecake, 40 ozs. ..................................$12.99
Streusel loaf cake, 14 ozs. ...................................... $4.99
Carrot cake, single layer, 8-in. round .................$15.99
Chocolate chunk brownie, 4 ozs. ........................... $1.99
Chocolate Lace cake, 8-in. round ........................... $5.99
Chocolate Lace cake with filling, 8-in. round ..... $6.99
Cinnamon crumb cake, 8-in. square ..................... $4.99
Chocolate layer cake, 7-in. square .......................$13.99
Lemon bar, 5 ozs. ................................................... $1.99
Chocolate cake, 1/4 sheet .....................................$17.99
Caramel apple pie, 9 ins. ........................................ $7.99
Baguette, 12 ozs. .................................................... $2.09
Mousse tart, 4.5 ozs. .............................................. $3.49
Kalamata olive bread, 18 ozs. ................................ $3.99
Bagel, 5 ozs., per dozen.......................................... $5.40
Pane Italia bread, 18 ozs. ....................................... $1.49