Have dough, will travel (to bake it) Chip & Pepper eager for KUB bread to rise again, but search for facility proving difficult; competitors won’t offer slice of operations to help By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Thursday, Apr. 13, 2023 Last Modified: 11:43 AM CDT Friday, Apr. 14, 2023 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/04/2023 (877 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

KUB bread might hit store shelves soon — but first, it needs a bakery.

“Within the next month, we should be back in the market,” said Pepper Foster, who announced in January that he and his brother Chip had purchased the beloved Winnipeg brand.

However, the Fosters’ company has no bakery of its own, nor does it have contracts with other facilities to produce its much-loved loaves in high volumes.

“It takes a village, and everyone kind of rowing the same way,” said Foster.

In January, the identical twin brothers, who operate global denim brand Chip & Pepper California, said they hoped to ramp up production of KUB Bakery loaves — including the rye, a staple at Manitoba socials — within 120 days.

Foster has since trekked across the city looking for the right location. He’s scouted sites on Notre Dame Avenue, in St. Boniface, south Winnipeg and near the airport, he said.

“I’m looking at a bigger facility where I can scale,” Foster said. “I’ve done this before where I’ve got a warehouse, and then when the last pallet… comes in… I look to my brother and say, ‘Oh my God, this place is too small.’”

KUB Bakery’s former owner sparked a media frenzy last November when its owner announced the 99-year-old institution was closing its doors. The Erin Street facility has a new owner and is no longer a bakery.

Foster estimates he’ll need to produce about 50,000 loaves per week to meet demand. But at this point, smaller batches are better than none at all, he said.

He’s asked other local bakeries to produce KUB bread while he searches for a 20,000 to 30,000-square-foot facility, but hasn’t found any help.

“I’m looking at places like Saskatoon, Regina, other places to support me,” Foster said. “(Local bakeries) see me as a competitor, but at the end of the day, bread is bread. We’d love to work together.”

“I’m looking at places like Saskatoon, Regina, other places to support me… (Local bakeries) see me as a competitor, but at the end of the day, bread is bread. We’d love to work together.”–Pepper Foster

More options attract consumers and improve business for competing companies, he added.

City Bread and Gunn’s Bakery didn’t respond to interview requests by print deadline. Todd Hagen from Natural Bakery said he hadn’t heard anything from KUB, adding the company wouldn’t be interested in making KUB bread.

“If a local bakery makes KUB bread, they’re in direct competition with themselves,” said Ross Einfeld, KUB Bakery’s former production manager.

It’s common for bakeries to produce box retailers’ discount brands, but that’s different — it typically “enhances” the bakery’s offerings instead of creating direct competition, Einfeld said.

He’s in retirement mode, removed from KUB Bakery operations. Still, he gives the Foster brothers advice when asked.

He advised the Fosters to keep customers updated on the brand’s status, he said.

“As time moves on… people move on,” he said.

Even so, people who love KUB may buy loaves regardless of how many years have passed between production dates, he added.

He recalled the challenges the bakery faced in his final years — the equipment breakdowns, labour shortages and pandemic-era declining sales. Input costs had skyrocketed; in November, Einfeld said he hadn’t paid himself since the prior May.

“Bakeries are an expensive proposition,” Einfeld said, talking about the many issues he had to overcome while relocating the business after a 2008 fire that destroyed KUB’s original Stella Avenue facility, including purchasing, installing and scheduling inspections for all of his new equipment.

“Once you find the space… it took me a year to get KUB established once we had our fire.”

“Once you find the space… it took me a year to get KUB established once we had our fire.”–Ross Einfeld, KUB Bakery’s former owner

KUB Bakery is now working with ICI Properties, a firm that has found locations for Home Depots and Staples to build in Manitoba, and Active Mechanical Contracting, which has been scouting ovens and other equipment and consulting.

“We don’t want to put a timeline on everything just yet,” said Raf Grymuza, Active Mechanical Contracting’s owner.

Once a location is nailed down, it will be “all hands on deck” to purchase and install the necessary equipment, Grymuza said.

His team is sorting through KUB Bakery’s old equipment, determining what’s usable, and shopping for new supplies.

A single commercial oven can cost $100,000, Einfeld said.

Mixers, dough dividers, bread slicers and new deals with ingredient suppliers are all required.

Money isn’t an issue, said Foster, adding the new KUB Bakery’s startup might cost up to $6 million.

He wouldn’t divulge how much money investors have already advanced, but noted “we’re well in the millions.”

“We own the ‘Nike’ brand of bread, there’s no question,” he said, adding he’s looked at licensing deals. “(KUB is) a super-brand.”

KUB’s business plan is still being evaluated, but “baby steps” are coming, Foster said, adding he’d been in talks with a bakery to produce up to 12,000 KUB loaves weekly, but the deal recently went sideways.

Once a bakery partnership is cemented, or KUB buys its own space, loaves will appear on smaller retailers’ shelves, he said.

He envisions franchising the brand and growing it across North America.

“We own the ‘Nike’ brand of bread, there’s no question… (KUB is) a super-brand.”–Pepper Foster

Food Fare has been in talks with KUB “regularly,” according to owner Munther Zeid.

“They keep on saying they’re coming,” he said. “Yet, there’s barely anything available in the city.”

Zeid said he doesn’t have a deal with KUB, but he’s willing to sell the bread, when it’s available, if there’s a demand.

KUB’s research and development team produced approximately 20,000 loaves in Manitoba, Foster said in an email.

Ninety per cent of the loaves were shipped to the United States to test the market, while the latter 10 per cent were sold in Manitoba stores such as De Luca’s.

KUB bread had been available at Costco, Safeway, Red River Co-op and the Original Pancake House, among other places.

Before its closure, KUB produced 6,000 loaves daily, Einfeld said in January. The loaves sold for between $3 and $4 and were made in bulk.

Foster, who lives in Winnipeg, bought The Pennyloaf Bakery with his wife last June. The shop focuses on small-batch artisan breads.

Foster and his brother Chip shot to fame in the late 1980s and 1990s with their popular tie-dyed beachwear clothing line and Saturday-morning U.S. network TV cartoon series.

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com