The Client
Great Harvest Bakery Café began in the 1970’s, making whole wheat bread from scratch. The now 200-unit franchise still sources its wheat berries from Montana and ships them to stores across the country. Today, the product line has expanded far beyond bread to include whole wheat cookies, muffins, scones, bars, and many other products in both their stores and in retail. Great Harvest has approved both recipes and ingredient vendors, yet franchisees are not required to use either, introducing great variability in recipes and ingredients alike.
The Challenge
Non-standard formulas and ingredients, multiplied by 200 franchisees, create enormous complexity for Great Harvest’s nutritional analysis and food label development. Adding to this complexity is the range of product categories, retail products and cafe items. For many years, Great Harvest managed this function through an in-house Registered Dietitian (RD) who performed nutritional analysis for each bakery and developed labels accordingly. When that resource left the company, Great Harvest was confronted with how to ensure compliant ingredient statements, food labels for retail items and restaurant menu labeling for cafe items.
The Solution
Great Harvest determined that outsourcing the RD function to Food Consulting Company was a viable strategy if partnered with a smart, motivated product manager who could learn the food labeling ropes. Food Consulting Company created a custom onboarding and training program specific to the products and menu items that Great Harvest produces. The training was individualized, hands on, and focused on the tools and software systems required to develop compliant food labels. The first four weeks consisted of 1×1 training with the Great Harvest staff followed by a period of being an on-call resource to help Great Harvest through the transition.
The Results
The custom onboarding and training program developed for the Great Harvest staff helped the company transition to effective management of multiple, varied, and complex food labels across several food categories, ensuring 100% compliance.
Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. The staff who had no prior knowledge of food labeling came up to speed quickly without any cost of travel or time away from the office. The team continues to get labels completed faster and more cost-effectively. Most importantly, Great Harvest management has a go-to-resource they trust to ensure food and menu labeling are done right.
“We’re incredibly grateful that Food Consulting Company was our training and onboarding partner, as well as a resource going forward. They make the process approachable and compliance easy. When we need guidance – they are there. It’s like having an expert safety net always on your side.”
Janet Tatarka, Director of Bakery Logistics and Training, Great Harvest Franchising Inc.
