Making your own pies sounds like better margin and a point of difference. For most venues, the numbers — and the 4am starts — tell a different story.
"We'll make them ourselves — better margin, and customers love house-made." It's one of the most common decisions we see venues regret.
In-house pie production can work for a small number of venues with the right volume, skills and equipment. But most underestimate what it really costs. Here's where the plan usually goes wrong.
The pastry and filling in a pie might cost $1.80. The skilled baker starting at 4am, the extra kitchen hand, penalty rates, sick days and training cost far more per unit — and unlike a wholesale invoice, those costs don't scale down on quiet weeks.
Customers forgive a lot, but not inconsistency. When the pie they loved on Tuesday is different on Saturday because a different person made it, trust erodes. Commercial manufacturers achieve consistency through controlled processes that are near-impossible to replicate in a working kitchen.
The moment you produce at any scale — especially if you supply anyone else — you take on allergen management, labelling, shelf-life validation and food safety programs. Getting this wrong isn't a quality problem, it's a legal one.
House-made means committing production before you know the day's trade. Overproduce and you bin margin; underproduce and you disappoint customers by 11:30am. Frozen ready-to-bake wholesale stock lets you bake to demand instead.
Pie production monopolises ovens, bench space and cool room capacity that could be producing higher-margin, genuinely signature items. Most venues make better money using their kitchen for what makes them unique — and buying pastry from specialists.
Very few venues ever put true in-house cost per pie — labour, waste, energy, compliance, opportunity cost — next to a wholesale quote. Those who do are usually surprised which number is bigger.
This is a numbers decision, and a professional can give you the numbers. A wholesale pastry specialist will:
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For most cafés and venues, wholesale wins once labour, waste, energy, compliance and opportunity cost are counted. In-house production typically only pays at high, consistent volume with existing skilled labour.
Yes. Baked fresh on site from frozen, finished and presented well, quality wholesale pies are indistinguishable from house-made for most customers. Private label programs even put your brand on the product.
There's no universal number, but venues selling under several hundred pies a week rarely beat wholesale economics once all costs are counted. Get both numbers professionally costed before deciding.