There is an overlying assumption that fresh, seasonal, locally sourced ingredients and homemade products are always the best options. For many HORECA, or hotel, restaurant, and café businesses, this is not necessarily the case. Working with trusted frozen bakery manufacturers for pastries, breads, doughs, or crusts can often be in the best interest of both the company and the customer.
HORECA companies are essential to the food industry. Partnering with frozen bakery manufacturers allows them to offer a range of baked goods, keep operational costs manageable, and keep menus updated and fresh. Frozen bakery suppliers can also provide consulting services to many food businesses.
Why the Frozen Shift?
There are many reasons why a hotel, restaurant, or café choose to work with frozen bakery manufacturers rather than prepare everything from scratch. It may be an easy solution to help with inventory and supply chain issues, staffing shortages, high costs, food waste, dietary restrictions, or product customization and variety. Let’s examine some of the benefits.
Waste Saver
Frozen foods, and in particular frozen bakery products, can be an excellent solution for cutting down on food waste in commercial kitchens. Frozen products have a much longer shelf life than fresh ingredients or homemade baked goods. While fresh doughs or batters must be baked within days of making, frozen products will last months until you’re ready to use them. Also, being able to bake only as many goods as needed saves on tossing out unused dough or batters when the demand is slower.
Almost half of all wasted food happens in restaurants. The use of more frozen products can help prevent so much uneaten, expired, or unused food from ending up in trash bins.
Cost Efficient
While frozen pre-mixed or pre-baked products may cost more upfront, the cost savings of working with frozen bakery manufacturers add up. Not having to prepare everything on-site cuts down on staffing costs. Removing the need to invest in high-priced commercial equipment or stock up on and store individual bulk ingredients can also be a significant savings.
It is important for restaurants, hotels, and cafés to keep food cost margins down. Frozen goods, doughs, and batters purchased from high-quality manufacturers will help you save on both food and labor costs while still allowing you to create delicious baked products.
Labor Efficient
Creating bakery items from scratch includes many highly labor-intensive tasks. Not only do you need to consider the hours going into the daily production process, but also keep in mind the time and energy required to train each new staff member. With current labor shortages and the cost of labor increases, it does not make sense for HORECA businesses to do all of the production work in-house.
By partnering with frozen bakery manufacturers, your company may cut down on elements of kitchen labor. For example, using frozen pre-made dough for pizzas decreases the work and time involved in making each pizza and allows staff to focus on perfecting all the other elements that will impress your guests. Putting time and labor into creating every from scratch product that comes out of your kitchen may not result in the highest return on investment. Replacing the most labor-intensive tasks with frozen products can pay out.
Consistent Quality and Taste
Providing customers with consistently high-quality products is going to keep them happy and coming back. If your HORECA business is struggling with labor shortages or lack of time, consistency may not remain a top priority.
Starting with frozen bakery products purchased from the same trusted manufacturer will much more easily provide that consistency in quality and taste. If you find a bakery to produce frozen baked goods you love, why complicate the process by insisting on scratch-made items? With advances in freezing and baking technology, the difference between frozen and fresh bakery products is becoming indistinguishable.
Customization and Dietary Needs
Ordering from frozen bakery manufacturers can help your HORECA business offer a wider variety of products. With dietary needs more of a concern these days, you are going to need flexibility in your menu items. One bakery product, such as frozen pizza dough, will allow your business to create multiple customized baked goods, for example, pizzas, calzones, cinnamon rolls, breadsticks, etc.
A good frozen bakery manufacturer will also be able to work with you to provide frozen products for your customers with dietary restrictions, such as gluten-free or vegan customers. Creating these products from scratch daily would surely result in higher food waste as customer demands will vary over time. Product longevity with frozen items allows for more flexibility in dealing with changing customer needs and demands, as well as any shifts in food costs.
The success of a HORECA business depends on providing high-quality, affordable, and consistent products while managing overhead costs, labor, and food waste. Partnering with frozen bakery manufacturers that can deliver on taste and quality is a great choice for helping you manage all of these tasks.
Infographic
In the past few decades, commercial baking has advanced significantly. No longer must businesses rely on stale, dry foods that quickly lose flavor; they may now purchase excellent frozen bakery items that remain fresh for several months. Here is a look at how to set bread makers to assist HORECA enterprises in maintaining satisfied and loyal clients.
