From flea market to fine dining

By Anjali Fluker

Wendy Achatz remembers sitting all day at the Armada Flea Market, waiting for someone to buy one of her homemade pies for about $7.

But it’s been nearly a decade since Achatz has had to sell her wares in such venues. And it turns out the personal touch and long days eventually won customers over.

She and husband, Dave Achatz, now run a business that posted $3.5 million in 2004 revenue, supplying pies to grocery stores and restaurants; the couple expects to have five storefronts by the end of this year. Pies now range from $10.95 to $16.95.

Wendy Achatz said she and her husband started out as the lone bakers for Armada-based Achatz Handmade Pie Co. Nearly 12 years later, the company has expanded to 75 full-time employees — about 100 during the holidays — making about 5,000 pies a week, all by hand and from scratch.

“(Dave) was the guy at the 4 a.m. shift, filling pie shells and getting them in the oven, while I would get the kids up and get them off to school,” Wendy Achatz said. “Then, I’d come in and do the top crusts. We’d work all day.

“Now, we just have a wonderful team of bakers. I never thought I’d be able to teach anyone on how to crimp a pie as beautifully as me.”

Wendy Achatz said about 40 percent of Achatz’s sales are at retail locations in Troy, Oxford and the original shop in Armada. A new storefront is scheduled to open in Shelby Township this month, and the other is expected to debut in Sterling Heights later this year.

The remaining 60 percent of the business is wholesale, as Achatz supplies nearly 75 stores, including Whole Foods Market Inc. stores in Michigan and Illinois, metro Detroit Nino Salvaggio International Marketplace locations, and Kruse & Muer restaurants.

The regional division of Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods Market picked up on the Achatz pies because of the all-natural ingredients used and the high quality of the finished product, said Mary Mesic, Whole Foods assistant regional bakery coordinator.

Nearly 40 Michigan stores receive a daily delivery of about 40 pies each, while nine stores in Illinois receive a delivery twice a week, depending on how much remains from the previous delivery, Mesic said.

Mesic declined to share how much the company earned in Achatz pie sales.

Bill Kruse, who operates four Kruse & Muer restaurants and the Rochester Chop House, said the Achatz pies appealed to him because of the way the business was run.

Kruse said he was sold when Wendy Achatz first told him her story of the business, starting with baking pies in her home and taking years to expand to a commercial bakery in a pole barn. And at the time, Wendy Achatz was actively baking and delivering her own products, he said.

“What I loved about Wendy is the personal involvement she and her husband had, like what I did when I started,” Kruse said. “Everything was made from scratch. There were no fillings, it was real fruit.

“I went to see her operation and it was a perfect blend of the concept I had and the product she was selling. We could legitimately call it home-baked.”

Kruse said the five restaurants order about 10,000 pies a year from Achatz Handmade Pie Co., resulting in about $245,000 annually in dining room and carryout sales.

Kruse said he and his executive chef Chris Hessler hope to work with Achatz to create a pie that would be exclusive to the restaurants.

And while the company hopes to grow, there’s always the danger of getting too big, said Tom Miner, principal at Chicago-based food industry consulting firm Technomic Inc.

Historically, as smaller bakers grew, they would develop into commercial giants, such as Chicago-based Sara Lee Corp., or were bought out and became subsidiaries of major companies, such as Minneapolis-based General Mills Inc. or Northfield, Ill.-based Kraft Foods Inc., he said.

“It sounds like a typical sort of a startup situation: You’ve got a talented baker or two that supply local shops and may have a storefront that works with them,” Miner said. “Generally what happens is it gets so big that the quality goes out of the product. It moves on to become a traditional branding thing.”

Wendy Achatz said she and her husband are planning for controlled growth for Achatz Handmade Pies. Although she hopes to incorporate some automation, including a machine to help with filling pies, she never wants the process to become an assembly line with little or no human contact, she said.

“I love the invention of the machinery; it will be something that will save people’s backs,” Wendy Achatz said. “But I can keep an eye on our ingredients. We never put in chemical preservatives, artificial flavors. … There’s a million different things we can do with this pie business. The sky’s the limit here.”