Established Dessert Café + Ice Cream Concept with Cross-Trained Team

Bakery for sale

Asking price

$565,522

Revenue

$563,698

Cash flow

$239,013

About this business

Company Overview: This is a specialty dessert café and soft‑serve concept established in 2009 that serves consumers in a suburban area of a major Midwestern metro. The company began from home production and added a retail storefront several years later. It operates a single location with a loyal local following and steady foot traffic supported by community events and word‑of‑mouth.

Product & Customer Base: The menu centers on fresh‑baked cookies, brownies, cookie pies, and cupcake cookies paired with soft‑serve ice cream, milkshakes, sundaes, and coffee beverages. Revenue is diversified across in‑store retail, events, limited corporate catering, and nationwide shipping. The mix is balanced by season: frozen items perform in warmer months, while baked goods, hot beverages, and specialty chocolate items support winter demand. Customer concentration is low, with most sales to individuals and a small share from companies.

Operations & Team: The kitchen is visible for guests to witness baking, and produces baked goods daily using repeatable recipes and quality ingredients. Front‑of‑house runs counter service, upsells warm cookie and ice cream combinations, and manages gift card sales. Soft‑serve machines and standard baking equipment support predictable prep and service workflows. The team includes approximately seven employees (one full time, six part time) who are cross‑trained across counter, basic kitchen prep, decorating, and light website/social tasks. The owner handles payroll, bill payment, some ordering, menu coordination for events, and quality oversight but is not required on‑site full time. Inventory planning is weekly with adjustments for special occasions and shows; working capital needs are modest due to point‑of‑sale transactions and short receivable cycles. The business holds appropriate food service licenses; a manager‑level safety certification is required.

Growth: The business shows durable performance with multi‑year operation, steady in‑store sales, and event‑driven spikes tied to the community calendar. Mix shifts toward frozen items in summer and hot items in winter support margin stability across seasons. Go‑forward growth paths include expanding e‑commerce and nationwide shipping with structured digital marketing, building corporate catering through outbound outreach and packaged menus, leveraging third‑party gift card distribution to drive trial and repeat visits, and enhancing the coffee program to lift average ticket and off‑peak sales. Further gains can come from standardizing SOPs for fulfillment and calendaring seasonal launches and events.

Transition: The sale is driven by partner retirement and the owner’s plan to pursue other projects. To ensure a smooth handover, the owner is prepared to provide four to six weeks of structured training covering scheduling, ordering, inventory planning, event production, equipment operation and maintenance, customer service standards, and full store operations. Counter staff can be trained in two to three weeks, and bakers in about six weeks depending on experience.