Crest Hill Bakery, the fast-growing artisan maker based in Glenn Dale, MD, has crafted a formula for success: produce high quality European hearth baked breads and sell them to retail and wholesale customers as private label items.
“It allows our customers to have flexibility on how they market our products,” said Dave Neville, founder and CEO of Crest Hill, whose bakery journey began 40 years ago when he joined Vie de France as a teenager. “More so than ever, with retailers demanding higher quality items in their private label portfolio, we can offer them a broad line of top shelf products where they can control the label and how they want to market our line.”
After his stint with Vie de France, Neville joined the old American Café organization in Washington where he worked with experienced bakers, helping him further learn his craft. He joined Sutton Place Gourmet (now Balducci’s) to head that retailer’s artisan bread program in 1990. Five years later, he ventured on his own and opened Upper Crust Bakery in Silver Spring, MD. A second store debuted three years later in Olney, MD, and Neville’s business was moving forward.
However by 2000 the “low carb” movement had exploded, forcing Neville to make some hard business decisions. He sold the Olney store to Vie de France and converted his Silver Spring unit to a wholesale-only bakery. That was a pivotal move that would set the stage for future events.
Once again, Neville found another new niche which was successful, one that would provide the foundation of his business today.
By 2006, he had outgrown the Silver Spring facility and moved to a 13,000 square foot bakery in nearby Beltsville, MD. The company was also renamed Crest Hill. After steady growth and another expansion, Neville realized he simply needed more space, and six months ago opened a state-of-the art bakery production and distribution center in Glenn Dale, MD.
The new plant encompasses 144,000 square feet of space and not only replaces the Beltsville bakery, but also a separate 66,000 square foot distribution center in Jessup, MD.
“We’re still adding new equipment, but we’ve been baking here since May and the efficiencies we’ve already realized are tremendous,” said Neville. “And we have additional space if we need to expand further. We’re also very proud that we have met all SQF standards because food safety is very important to all of us at Crest Hill.”
While some functions have been automated, what really separates Crest Hill from other wholesale bakers that produce artisan-style bread is the quality ingredients it uses and the passion that Neville and his team (about 140 associates) offer.
From developing new varieties of breads to customizing orders for his customers, Neville is a throwback: an old-world craftsman who takes no shortcuts to produce varieties like ciabatta, tortano, pain de campagna and harvest multi-grain bread (Crest Hill’s top selling item). The bakery produces about 60 varieties of bread (with approximately 15 core items) and all breads are par-baked on stone in the company’s French ovens using high quality imported flour.
Beyond the love of baking, Dave Neville takes a pragmatic view of the business side of his company. “Don’t be cheap. We’ve built a reputation that’s based on the quality of our products. You can’t reach that level and maintain your reputation if you take shortcuts.”
Crest Hill, whose sales have been increasing about 10-15 percent annual for the past five years, now has an opportunity to grow even more quickly.
The new equipment will help with productivity (the company currently utilizes two shifts) and also provides Crest Hill with an opportunity to create new products.
It currently serves more than 2,000 supermarkets (including Ahold Delhaize USA’s brands as well as Giant Eagle, Harris Teeter and Whole Foods) in an area that encompasses the Eastern seaboard, parts of the Midwest and Texas.
When asked what he considers Crest Hill’s most effective selling technique, Dave Neville quickly responded.
“Put us in front of a decision maker with some fresh product to taste – that’s the best selling tool we have to offer.”