Great Harvest Bread Co. location in Delta Township for sale
DELTA TWP. — A bakery franchise that has served up loaves of scratch-made bread and baked goods for 25 years is for sale.
Great Harvest Bread Co.'s Delta Township, at 6137 W. Saginaw Hwy., one of two of the Montana-based bakery's franchises operating in the Lansing area is up for sale by owner Alka Josh.
Josh, who bought the franchise a year ago, hopes to find a buyer for the business. She's selling it, along with all of the bakery's equipment, inventory and recipes, for $150,000. An Okemos franchise location is unaffected by Delta Township sale.
The Delta Township bakery, open since 1999, has a loyal customer base, sells baked goods at Lansing's Meijer Capital City Market and at both Horrocks Farm Market locations in the township and Battle Creek and grosses over $500,000 a year in sales.
Josh says health issues, in part, prompted her to put the business on the market. She'll continue to run it until she finds the right buyer though.
"I think it's a good deal for somebody who sees the potential and they want to do something on their own," she said. "It's an exciting opportunity for the right person."
Bakery has a loyal customers, history
Josh was familiar with the food service industry before she bought the bakery. A native of New Delhi, India, she worked as a residential dining manager and culinary services manager at Michigan State University for a decade. Before that, she was a manager inside the cafe at the University of Michigan's undergraduate library.
Owning and operating a Great Harvest Bread Co. franchise was her retirement plan, Josh said.
"It was very exciting to find something that was a match for my skill set," she said. "When I was running the cafe one of my vendors was Great Harvest."
Josh was familiar with the brand and had toured a bakery location. She knew franchise owners and their staff made every item fresh in-house daily.
Josh was trained by the company and had the freedom to add additional menu items, including varieties of flavored butter and breakfast egg bites.
"That sense of independence and creativity kind of gave me a good vibe, that this might be something I want to experiment with," she said.
Josh is the location's fourth owner since it opened and she says the next owner will have stability, inheriting customers who have been buying loaves of bread at the storefront "forever."
Over the last year, she's kept the same schedule previous owners maintained, baking certain items on the same days that they did.
"We will do the staples, so we always have cookies, we'll have muffins and cupcakes, we'll have scones and then we have our everyday breads," Josh said.
'It's already established'
A new owner also would inherit the bakery's staff of nine, all of whom know it's on the market, and take over the remaining lease, which is locked in at the same monthly rate for the next five years, Josh said.
The next buyer needs to commit to three weeks of training through Great Harvest Bread Co. in Montana to take over Josh's franchise agreement. She would then offer them one week of training in her bakery.
Josh said a few potential buyers have expressed interest. Ultimately, the right buyer will be someone "looking for the next step" and willing to work for it, someone "who can count on themselves like, 'Hey, it's on me and I can make this work,'" she said. "It's already established. All you have to do is learn to replicate it. The systems are already in place."
Anyone interested can reach Josh via email at ajosh@greatharvest.com or by phone at 616-528-0449.
View the sale information online here.
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Contact Reporter Rachel Greco at rgreco@lsj.com. Follow her on X @GrecoatLSJ .
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: Great Harvest Bread Co. location in Delta Township is for sale
