Creative Simplicity at Crave
Creative
Simplicity
Simplicity. The secret behind many-a-great idea, bold
design, favourite recipe and memorable weekend is simplicity. Crave President
and Founder, Carolyne McIntyre Jackson, describes the founding of Crave Cupcakes
as a simple conversation:
“I always loved to bake. I always brought cookies
and cakes wherever I went. We went out with our cousin one night and he said,
‘you should really sell your cookies.’ I said, ‘ok,’ and asked Jodi if she
wanted to help with the business.”
Jodi Willoughby, Carolyne’s sister,
knew that she and her sister would work great together. They developed a logo
and menus, had blue boxes made and rented some commercial kitchen space. They
made hundreds of cookies, packaged them in blue boxes and their cousin gave them
out as gifts. People who received the cookies started to call for more. Finding
commercial kitchen space and keeping up with increasing demand became
challenging.
“We decided that if we wanted to do this, we would have to
really do it,” says Carolyne. The cookies were a hit, but cookies had been done
before. Another element was needed to make Crave a strong competitor on the
local dessert scene. Cupcakes seemed a good fit – another single serving, hand
held, home-style dessert. A simple Google search of the word “cupcake” brought
up a few bakeries in New York and one in Toronto that were selling cupcakes
exclusively. Further market research revealed a growing trend of boutique
cupcake shops in North America. The concept had yet to hit Calgary, but Calgary
exuded all the elements of a city fit to support such a
business.
Building a business based on one star product was not done
without criticism. Faced with questions of how a bakery could survive selling
only cupcakes, how they would do it without using cake mixes and egg mixtures,
Carolyne and Jodi knew they had to stay true to their brand and their passion
for baking fresh from scratch. They drafted a business plan based on scratch
cookies and cupcakes, found commercial space in Kensington and went for
it.
Crave Cookies and Cupcakes opened their Kensington doors in
September of 2004. It was busy. Jodi and Carolyne worked 16 hours a day,
six days a week for a year and a half. Keeping up with demand was a challenge
that didn’t go away.
“I think deep down we always knew we did not want
it to be just one store. That is why, from the beginning, we worked hard on the
branding and creating a great customer experience. We wanted to make it great
from the beginning,” says Carolyne.
Today Crave employs 75 people across
five retail locations and one office. Plans to expand are continuing with two
new locations opening outside of Calgary in the next six months. The initial
success and continued growth of the company has come from a combination of
staying true to their brand, working with great people, staying on top of
industry trends and being passionate about the business.
With more staff
on board than ever before, Jodi and Carolyne are able to step back from the
day-to-day operations and manage the company at a higher level. Looking to the
future, the sisters are focused on creating a special experience for customers,
developing a strong corporate culture and, the big goal, exposing 50 million
people to the Crave experience by 2020. Where to start? Setting annual goals
for expansion and staying true to the concept Crave was built on: making people
feel special.
In a time where everything seems to be getting more
complex – from technology to food - creative simplicity is a theme that runs
through all of Crave’s operations. The icing is made from five great
ingredients. The retail stores are clean and fresh. And the simple secret to
Crave’s success? “We are passionate about what we do.”
