The Cheesecake Factory Bakery

The Cheesecake Factory Bakery-Cheesecakes

Brief History

In the 1940's, Oscar and Evelyn Overton opened a small cheesecake shop in Detroit. The shop was soon moved to their basement so Evelyn could raise their two children. Evelyn baked her cheesecakes and supplied several upscale restaurants from her basement until 1972 when they moved to Los Angeles, California where The Cheesecake Factory business was officially created.

In 1975, Evelyn made more than 20 different versions of her cheesecakes and other deserts that were sold to over a hundred different wholesalers from Santa Barbara to San Diego and even supplied out of state customers as well.1 (thecheesecakefactory.com/aboutus/ourstory)

By 1978, David Overton created the Cheesecake Factory restaurant in Beverly Hills, California and now the "company operates 165 upscale, casual, full-service dining restaurants: 151 under The Cheesecake Factory marque, 13 under the Grand Lux Cafe marque and one under the RockSugar Pan Asian Kitchen marque. The Cheesecake Factory also operates two bakery production facilities, and licenses two bakery based menus for other food service operators, under The Cheesecake Factory Bakery Cafe marque."3 (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cheesecake_Factory)

Menu Options2 (thecheesecakefactory.com/menu)

The Cheesecake Factory Restaurant menus features over 200 menu selections that are made from scratch every day such as:

SkinnyliciousTM Menu Pastas

A collection of fresh and delicious Tomato Basil Pasta

Menu options with lower calories Louisiana Chicken Pasta

Cheesecake Specialties

The original one that started it all and Chicken Bellagio

over 40 variations of cheesecake White Chicken Chili

Sandwiches Salads

The Club Fresh Country Salad

Chicken Parmesan Sandwich Seared Tuna Tataki Salad

Lunch Specials Fish & Seafood

Renee's Special-one-half of a fresh Turkey Fish & Seafood

or Chicken Salad

Appetizers Pizzas

Hot Spinach and Cheese Dip The Everything Pizza

Roasted Vegetable Pizza

Glamburgers Factory Combinations

Wild Mushroom Burger Steak & Chops

Smokehouse B.B.Q Burger Herb Crusted Salmon & Shrimp

Scampi

The Cheesecake Factory Bakeries

"The current Bakery business is divided roughly in thirds between food service, retail, and The Cheesecake Factory restaurants. The Cheesecake Factory Bakery has two production facilities: One in Calabasas Hills, California and the other is in Rocky Mount, N.C. Between the two bakeries, the production is around 34 million cakes annually. The bakery in "California produces approximately 25,000 cakes per day and the bakery in N.C. is now producing 25 million cakes annually."6 (ijwhite.com, p.30)

The company developed a foodservice brand - Dream Factory - in 2001 to "squelch competition with restaurant sales. Additionally, in 2003 the Cheesecake Factory entered into a relationship with SYSCO and Gourmet Express to distribute their cheesecakes throughout the United States. These cakes are a little smaller than what is produced for The Cheesecake Factory restaurants, and are cut into 14 slices versus 12. While this provides higher value to the operator, they use the same high-quality ingredients and design creativity with all their Cheesecake Factory products." All cheesecakes are frozen and have shelf lives ranging from six to 12 months, depending on topping and finishing.4 (chbabb.com)

Product Chosen

The Cheesecake Factory's Original Red Velvet Cheesecake is "Moist layers of Red Velvet Cake with the original cheesecake layered in the middle and covered with their special Cheesecake Factory cream cheese frosting." (shop.the cheesecakefactory.com) I chose this product because it is exclusively sold at Sam's Club, Costco, or on their website http://shop.thecheesecakefactory.com/ and is made with The cheesecake originally created in the 1940's.5 (thecheesecakefactory.com/menu/cheesecake)

Product Life Cycle

The product life cycle describes the stages a new product goes through in the

marketplace: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. The Cheesecake factory is a well-established company and is its maturity stage.

Maturity Stage12 (netmba.com)

* Costs are lowered because of production volumes increasing

* Sales volume peaks and market saturation is reached

* Increase in competitors entering the market

* Prices tend to drop due to the proliferation of competing products

The company has lowered the prices of their cheesecakes and production volumes have steadily increased from last year. "The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated (NASDAQ: CAKE) today reported financial results for the first quarter of fiscal 2012, which ended on April 3, 2012. Total revenues were $435.8 million in the first quarter of fiscal 2012 as compared to $418.8 million in the prior year first quarter." Comparable restaurant sales at The Cheesecake Factory and Grand Lux Cafe increased 2.4% in the first quarter of fiscal 2012. By concept, comparable restaurant sales grew 2.6% at The Cheesecake Factory and 0.3% at Grand Lux Cafe."9 (investors.thecheesecakefactory.com)

Additionally, there is fierce competition from companies such as "casual restaurants, food manufacturing, grain product manufacturing, bakery product manufacturing,