Kettlemans Bagel Company

BUILDING RESILIENCE WITH CULINARY INNOVATION AND Supply Chain Optimisation

BUILDING RESILIENCE WITH CULINARY INNOVATION

AND

SUPPLY CHAIN OPTIMISATION

Amer

Wahab, President of Kettlemans Bagel Company reveals their recipe for success.

Kettlemans Bagel Company started in 1993, when Founder Craig Buckley had the idea to bring Montreal bagels to Canada’s capital city Ottawa.

he business makes its bagels by hand rolling, kettling and baking them in wood-burning ovens. Kettlemans serves them alongside 16 spreads, an array of sandwiches and baked goods at its restaurants which are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Here to share more insights into the culinary innovation and supply chain optimisation that allowed them to grow during the COVID pandemic and ever since is Amer Wahab, President and Chief Operations Officer at Kettlemans Bagel.

OPPORTUNITY FROM ADVERSITY

The repercussions of the COVID pandemic reverberated across many industries and the food and hospitality sectors were no exception. But Amer is immensely proud that Kettlemans navigated this challenging time without having to close its doors or laying off a single member of staff.

When asked how the company managed this, Amer says, “I’m going to have to quote my wife here because she deserves the acknowledgement. I said at the time we were very lucky, we never closed and we continued to operate. But she corrected me. She said no – ‘Luck is just what happens when preparation meets opportunity.’”

Amer attributes the company’s resilience to the work culture at Kettlemans.

“We were

in a way that

us to ride it out,” explains Amer. “We did everything in our ability to ensure we did not let anybody go and at the time we were a company of 300 people.

“It's in our DNA to grow as a company but also in terms of

built

allowed

developing people – even when everything around you is shutting down,” says Amer. “We have a culture that is truly built on a passion for what we do and the purpose that gives everyone within our organisation lets us provide people the opportunity to grow.”

But Kettlemans not only kept all their restaurants open and retained all staff, but it also opened four new establishments during the COVID pandemic.

INNOVATION AND OPTIMISATION

Employment security and business stability were not the only ingredients in

“We have a culture that is truly built on a passion for what we do and the purpose that gives everyone within our organisation lets us provide people the opportunity to grow”

Kettlemans’ recipe for success. Culinary innovation and supply chain optimisation were major components as well.

“There's a bit of a fine line, especially when you're working with unit economics being front of mind. You want to create jobs but you also have to maintain a balance for your costs of goods with respect to food and your labour so you can have healthy margins,” says Amer.

Crucial to this was transitioning to a central kitchen while working with supplier partners to enhance the Kettlemans products and make

its supply chain leaner and more sustainable.

“We were able to centralise, for example, with the production of our cream cheese from Skotidakis,” explains Amer. “We buy the base from them and add our own flavour profiles to it. We have 16 different flavours of cream cheese – dill pickle, hot pepper, blueberry, just to name a few.

“That took the burden off individual stores creating their own products. We centralised the process and decreased the economic costs of labour in some

areas by creating efficiencies and having ingredients from a single source, made within our four walls. We also reassessed production and now have certain items made for us, for instance some of our pastries and cakes.

“Another example is how we shifted our salmon supplier because they could provide a superior product that was consistent and send us the product in a sliced format, again saving time, reducing labour costs and improving efficiency. But we also wanted to ensure that the product was 100 per cent Canadian.

“The supplier told us that the 1,500kg of salmon we buy from them every month created four new full-time jobs and that’s what it’s all about – a high tide raises all ships.”

Kettlemans shifted its purchasing patterns to buy more products in advance and adjusted its periodic automatic replacement (PAR)

levels at its establishments. The company also took an intelligent approach to the timelines for opening new restaurants.

“As soon as you open a restaurant, they need supplies,” explains Amer. “Those supplies may not have been accounted for when your supplier did their initial purchasing. Transparent communication ensures our suppliers are fully aware of when we schedule openings, allowing our partners to adapt to our volume increases and provide a steady flow of products. Crucial to this is ensuring that we agree good, fair terms so the people who pay the bills are the people who get what's needed first. Always being current with your partners and honouring your commitments is fundamental.”

Culinary innovation and supply chain optimisation have gone hand in hand with promoting a sustainable agenda at Kettlemans.

Here, Amer highlights the importance of education, efficiency

“We were able to centralise, for example, with the production of our cream cheese from Skotidakis. We buy the base from them and add our own flavour profiles to it”

and supplier-partner collaboration.

“First of all, we invest in our people, that's key. Because investing in your people and ensuring they are educated means we can source our products better, smarter, closer and cleaner. Then it’s a question of aligning yourself with people along that supply chain who have the same values as you – we always look for responsible partners.

“We believe in progress, in chasing perfection. It’s about the benchmark you set and how you strive towards it.”

SERVICE + LEADERSHIP

Since the world moved on from the grips of the COVID pandemic, Kettlemans has managed to maintain its momentum even with a downward trend in foot traffic to stores in a context of hyperinflation and increased costs of living: a challenge for

“We believe in progress, in chasing perfection. It’s about the benchmark you set and how you strive towards it”

businesses around the world, not just in Canada.

“We have been refocusing on the core of the business, what we call our Big Four,” says Amer. “These are incredible hospitality, amazing food, unwavering cleanliness and sanitation and superior speed of service. We are very guest-centric.

“Focusing on our customers and our stability as a company gives us the freedom to innovate and look towards expansion”

“Focusing on our customers and our stability as a company gives us the freedom to innovate and look towards expansion,” summarises Amer.

Culinary innovation and supply chain optimisation would not be possible without employee buy-in to facilitate successful deployment. For Amer as the

company President, he relishes the responsibility his leadership role presents to motivate and empower his colleagues towards achieving the company’s goals.

Elaborating on his leadership style, Amer says, “Here's a little acronym that I use myself: LAF. It stands for listen, align and follow-up. So we listen to what our people have to

say. We align ourselves to ensure we're all aiming at the same goal. Then we do the follow-up with the great people that we've hired as they do what they're best at doing.”

FUTURE

So what are the principal ambitions at Kettlemans for 2023 and beyond?

Amer reiterates Kettlemans mission to create lifechanging opportunities for employees and champion a guest-centric approach with the Big Four at the forefront of their operations.

The company is always considering new site locations and how to innovate its operations. Kettlemans is contemplating deploying a franchising model and assessing the commercial viability of opening smaller restaurants or stores using a hub and spoke approach where larger establishments would support these satellite outlets.

For more information, visit www.kettlemansbagels.ca.