PROVIDENCE, RI — When it comes to setting up a brick-and-mortar operation, making the most out of the square footage available is key for optimizing operations.
In a Camp Bread lecture titled “Seventeen Syllables: Bakery Design for Small Spaces,” Thom Leonard, a veteran baker who worked in and opened multiple bakeries, shared his insights on what he learned about maximizing space when he founded Independent Baking Co. in Athens, GA.
“Eight hundred square feet seems like a lot of space, but it’s not that much space,” Thom said, noting that when he began building Independent Baking. It was almost maxed out from the beginning.
He shared that the first consideration for bakers should be deciding what can be placed in a bakery and what’s important to have. It’s also crucial to be realistic about what cannot be positioned and what the limit is on potential additions to a bakery space.
To accommodate for a smaller space, Thom limited the space that was available to customers to grant more space for the operational part of the bakery. Simple design changes such as flipping the electric panel in a wall to be inside of the bathroom helped make way for additional walk-ins.
Being creative with storage also offered Thom opportunities to make the most out of the bakery space. One example he gave was the repurposing of an ATM building a few parking spots away from the bakery. In renting and transforming the 70-square-foot space, the bakery was able to optimize the storage of essentials such as flour and packaging.
“It was the best $200 a month rent that we could have possibly found,” Thom said.
While the interior of the bakery had limited space available for customers, getting to know the neighboring businesses offered a new opportunity for seating customers.
“There’s a running store right next to us that decided to put this roof over the patio,” Thom recalled. “They did the work themselves and the owner said, ‘If you pay for half of the material, you can use it for free.’”
As a result, Independent Baking was able to set out some tables and chairs and expand seating for its customers.
Other space-saving tips include taking advantage of vertical space through storage on shelves, investing in multipurpose appliances such as worktop freezers and optimizing space to best fit the needs of bakery employees.
Another key element to building a bakery is to include natural lighting.
“I’ve worked in bakeries where there’s no window to the outside world, fluorescent lighting — it’s not very pleasant,” he said. “We put in three skylights in this 800-square-foot building so that 15% of our ceiling is daylight just changed the building and the work environment so much.”
Accessibility can also be a key consideration for bakers trying to make the most of tight quarters, such as through investing in rack ovens or adapting equipment with extensions to support shorter employees.
By keeping these key elements in mind, bakers can optimize their tiny but mighty brick-and-mortar shops.
