Great Harvest Executive Summary

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Great Harvest: Keeping It Simple

Building a Freedom-based Franchise

Report Prepared by

Steve Cannizzaro

Table of Contents

Executive Summary pg. 3

Objectives pg. 3

Mission pg. 4

Keys to Success pg. 4

Great Harvests' History pg. 5

Key developments: Chronology pg. 5

Early History pg. 5

Company Summary pg. 8

Company Ownership pg. 8

Start-up Summary pg. 8

Location Map pg. 9

SWOT Analysis pg. 10

Strategy and Implementation Summary pg. 11

Profitability pg. 11

Service pg. 13

Competition pg. 14

Organization and Management pg. 16

Woodburn Management Team pg. 16

Organizational Chart pg. 18

Operational Strategies pg. 18

Woodburn Great Harvest Bread Company pg. 19

Works Cited pg. 20

Executive Summary

Great Harvest Bread Company is a bakery specializing in scratch made, whole grain breads, giant cookies, and sweets using the freshest ingredients. Within the last few years there have been significant increases in demand for these bakery products. This can be explained to a large degree by the fact that recently Americans have turned to healthier and higher quality foods. Whole-wheat bread products are better for consumers than other kinds of bread. It also true that whole wheat is less processed and therefore kinder to our environment than other kinds of bread. Baking bread and opening bakeries is about making good lives for ourselves.

Objectives

1. Establish a working storefront for Great Harvest Bread Company in the Woodburn Mall.

2. Recruit the nicest, most generous, most honest and authentic people we can find.

3. Create freedom-based franchise, combining the fun of "doing it yourself" with the quick learning that comes with being part of the Great Harvest community.

4. Develop the strong presence in the community needed to support sales goals.

5. Sustainable growth of the company.

6. Develop an original menu by the end of the second quarter

7. Create a good life for the bakery owners, their families, and their employees.

Mission Statement

"Be loose and have fun.

Bake phenomenal bread.

Run fast to help customers.

And give generously to others (Greatharvest.com 1)."

Keys to Success

The keys to success are:

* Brand name awareness and name recognition.

* Great leadership and management.

* High quality products.

* Services delivered on time.

* Marketing: solving problems with minor advertising and promotion budgets.

* The creative use of technology.

* Cost control.

Great Harvests' History

Key developments: Chronology

January 1972 -- Pete Wakeman's "idea" of the Great Harvest began in his mom's kitchen in Durham, Connecticut.

February 1976 -- Pete and Laura Wakeman open the first Great Harvest bakery in Great Falls, Montana.

March 1977 -- Dave Lucara opens the first Great Harvest Bakery Franchise in Kalispell, Montana. Soon after Jacque and Terry Sanchez from Spokane and Stella and Ziggy Zigler from Billings open their bakeries.

September 1982 -- Laura and Pete Wakeman moved to Dillon, Montana, to concentrate on the franchising end of their business.

October 2004 -- Great Harvest now has 130 bakeries in 34 states and generates annual sales of more than $60 million. Great Harvest's goal is to have 500 stores by 2005 (Greatharvest.com History).

Early History

The Great Harvest Bakery Company's beginnings were modest. Pete Wakeman's first memory of baking bread was with his Aunt Polly. He was seven or eight and they baked Ana Dama bread, a type of cornmeal molasses bread (Greatharvest.com History).

Both from Durham, Connecticut, Laura and Pete, the future founder's of Great Harvest, had been going steady all through high school. When they graduated, they decided to attend Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, with Laura to study Nutrition and Pete to take up Agriculture. During their second summer home, Pete waited too long to find a summer job and was suddenly looking for work. Falling back on what he knew, he began to bake fresh-ground whole-wheat bread in his mother's oven to sell by the road - the family house was set back from a minor route to the beach and had strong traffic, particularly on the weekends. He set up a card table and pitched