COBS opens third bakery in CT, eyes more locations in state
WESTPORT — Lauren Costello made her first visit to the new bakery in her hometown last week. A day later, the chef and Westport resident was a regular.
“I bake challah every Friday, and I thought, ‘This week, I won’t, I’ll try theirs.’ So I got some challah knots,” Costello said during an interview last Friday at the COBS Bread bakery, in the Compo Acres Shopping Center, at 374 Post Road E., in Westport.
Her haul did not end with the challah knots. She also bought a cinnamon loaf, “which will be great for French toast,” and a miniature Hawaiian pizza because, she said with a wry smile, “I need a vacation.”
Costello is one of many satisfied customers who have visited the bakery since its opening on Jan. 6, according to COBS officials. The enthusiastic response bodes well for the long-term goals of COBS — whose full name is Canada’s Own Bread Store — which is making Connecticut a focal point of its U.S. expansion.
The approximately 1,500square-foot bakery stands between a Pokeworks eatery and a Trader Joe’s grocery store. The company-run establishment complements two other COBS locations — a company-owned bakery at 1057 High Road in Stamford and a franchised establishment at 5 Riverside Lane in Greenwich.
“I think it’s gone really well. The product quality has been great, and the sales team has been great,” Parise Huard, an area manager based in Ontario, Canada, who has been overseeing the opening of the Westport bakery, said during an interview last week. “And the feedback we’re getting is overwhelmingly good.”
While COBS customers in Connecticut have many other options for baked goods, including the Westport Trader Joe’s, COBS officials said their bread and pastries’ freshness stands out. All COBS products are freshly baked every day, with the bakers in Westport starting their days at 2 a.m., they said.
“You can smell the freshly baked stuff, and it draws people in,” Huard said.
Illustrating Huard’s point, a number of customers made their way into the bakery while she was being interviewed.
“This bread is going to Niantic!” New Haven resident Alida Engel, one of those customers, said proudly, as she held up a loaf of olive bread that she was planning to take that night to a friend in the waterfront village, which is part of East Lyme. COBS was conveniently located for Engel, who stopped by right after a meeting in Norwalk.
COBS officials also said that they are committed to sustainable practices. They said that the Westport bakery’s unsold food at the end of each day is donated to several local nonprofits, including Caroline House, Food Rescue US,Nourish Bridgeport and The Color A Positive Thought Organization.
The bakery in Westport, which is initially employing about 20 people, is part of COBS’ plan to open 30 bakeries within the next three years in the northeast U.S. Cheshire, Danbury, Fairfield and Norwalk are among the potential locations that COBS officials are exploring in Connecticut.
New York is the other state in which COBS has established a presence. Last month, it opened a bakery in the Long Island community of Merrick. It plans to open bakeries in March and May in two other Long Island locations, Oceanside and Plainview, respectively, as well as one in April in Eastchester, in Westchester County.
In Canada, COBS, has approximately 170 locations, supported by offices in Toronto and Vancouver. The business is part of Baker’s Delight, an Australian bakery franchise that started in the 1980s as a family business. In addition to the COBS bakeries in the U.S., and Canada, there are approximately 500 Baker’s Delight locations in Australia.
“The business model is to open corporately, build the mass market and attract passionate entrepreneurs, as they did in Canada, and then build on a franchised model,” COBS Vice President Karen Frost-Spokes said in an interview.
While COBS is increasing its number of locations, it does not intend to overhaul its business model, which focuses on bread, pastries and a few specialty items such as pizza. It is not trying to compete with fast-casual dining brands such as Panera — which is why there are no sandwiches on COBS’ menu and no seats in its bakeries. And it is not going head-to-head with chains such as Dunkin’, which has a store across the road from the Westport bakery, as it does not sell donuts or beverages.
“The whole piece of this is us being able to provide the fresh bread for you to take home and enjoy in the comfort of your own home,” Frost-Spokes said.