Baking Up Success: Specialty Bakery Expands Production with Flexible Refinancing from TEDC
Table of Contents:
Building a Business From a Young Age
Early Success Leads to Operational Challenges
Steady Growth, Continuing to Find Opportunities
Expanding Production with a New Facility and Flexible Funding
New Products, More Workers, and Good Things to Come
Lan Robinson, owner and founder of Specialty Bakery of Tulsa, has experienced three decades of success baking and supplying high-end rolls, buns, and breads to large food companies, grocery chains, and restaurants around the country. With funding from TEDC Creative Capital, Robinson now has a second, larger facility that will allow the business to bake more items, serve more clients, and employ more people.
Building a Business From a Young Age
Robinson’s expertise and love for baking bread started early on. His parents ran ten Little Lanny’s Sub Shops in Tulsa, while his grandfather owned Big Al’s Healthy Foods on 15th Street and Harvard. Robinson himself began working in his parents’ shop at the tender age of five, helping out in the mornings until it was time for him to head to school.
After his parents divorced and his grandfather passed away, the family businesses shifted, and so did Robinson. He went to the University of Tulsa to earn a Bachelor of Science in Management. But baking remained a passion of his. During his studies, he wrote a business plan for a commercial bakery, and out of that project, Specialty Bakery of Tulsa was born.
Robinson graduated, bought a 60-quart mixer for $600, and launched his baking business in 1989. He lived and worked in the same building, a small space that has since grown to include the entire block. It’s taken serious commitment and innovation to help the business thrive over more than 35 years.
Early Success Leads to Operational Challenges
Over the years, Robinson has enjoyed the process of developing the bakery’s operations. “I like the product development, the sales, production, operations management, the engineering of the business, all of that,” he says. Robinson’s entrepreneurial spirit and problem-solving skills helped Specialty Bakery weather its early days until he landed his first big client.
“I started with the buns for sandwich shops,” he says. “My first big break was getting Coney Island in downtown Tulsa.”
At the time, Robinson delivered his products directly to the stores that ordered them. When his regular delivery route was finished for the day, he’d stop at Coney Island to give them some buns to try out. Based on the owner’s feedback, Robinson would return to the bakery, adjust his recipe and baking method, and return with more samples.
“I got it to where Jim liked our buns better than anything he’d ever had. They shut their plant down, and I just got all that business,” Robinson says. Coney Island ordered 100,000 buns a week, a considerable volume that doubled Specialty Bakery’s business overnight.
Robinson and his crew found themselves running day and night to meet the need, but he knew a better solution was out there. In 1990, he bought out a competitor in Enid, Oklahoma, and learned how to leverage their automation and commercial bakery processes.
“We jumped from 13 employees to 27, and we were able to add another 100,000 units a week,” he says. At that time, Robinson also built onto his initial commercial space, eventually owning the entire block with 45,000 square feet.
Steady Growth, Continuing to Find Opportunities
As its name suggests, Specialty Bakery of Tulsa doesn’t do run-of-the-mill baked goods. They specialize in making brioche buns, signature buns, breadsticks, and rolls for billion-dollar corporations, large food companies, and restaurant chains, including Tyson, Whole Foods, and HEB.
While some customers bring their own recipes, most of Specialty Bakery’s products are developed entirely in-house and are in high demand. The secret to such success, Robinson says, is a commitment to learning.
“I cut my teeth on going to hotels, pastry chefs, and executive chefs who were doing their own bread program. It was like boot camp for bakers.” Robinson would study what others were doing and go back to his kitchen to figure out their recipes and techniques.
“Iterate, iterate, iterate,” he says. “That’s the key to product development and even automation and training. You just keep trying to improve, continual improvement.”
In addition to serving other clients, Specialty Bakery is also developing its own brand of high-protein, plant-based bagels, buns, and breads, which is expected to launch in 2026. Robinson’s goal is to build that new brand of bread until it is half of their overall production. For that, they need a larger facility, more production lines, and trained employees.
Which is precisely where TEDC Creative Capital comes in!
Expanding Production with a New Facility and Flexible Funding
Robinson first connected with TEDC during the COVID shutdown. With dreams of growing his business, he took advantage of the opportunity to purchase a second facility, one that has almost 100,000 square feet and room for five lines of production. But he couldn’t buy equipment because the pandemic dragged his business to a halt.
“When they shut down the restaurants, they basically shut down the bakery,” he says. “We were shut down for three months, and then TEDC helped us get a grant. They were very helpful with that.”
Once business ramped up again, Robinson was ready to expand again. He reconnected with the TEDC team and worked on refinancing his property to purchase new equipment and expand production lines. TEDC’s team made it their priority to help him bring his plans to life. They provided useful advice and collaborated with him to find solutions. The result not only helped Robinson get his new facility up to snuff but also created a more beneficial loan structure.
“TEDC has saved me $75,000 a month on my loan payments,” Robinson says. “It has lowered our breakeven cost and quadrupled our capacity with the equipment we were able to buy. We’re well on our way to doubling our employee count from 60 to 120. TEDC has been a big help.”
New Products, More Workers, and Good Things to Come
The refinance is making it easier for Specialty Bakery to invest in additional automation. “We’re eventually going to have technicians and not line workers,” Robinson says. “We’re trying to get our employees better trained and better paid, and that takes capital.”
The bakery already has one extra line of production going in its new facility, and there’s a second line already built and ready to go as they continue to expand production. Eventually, Robinson hopes to expand their production lines to include specialty breads, rolls, and buns, thereby serving more customers and increasing sales of their new high-protein bread brand.
That’s the advantage of working with a team like TEDC. “They’re just experts,” he says. “And that’s what somebody like me needs. You can’t wear all the hats as an entrepreneur. You need an expert in each area that knows more than you. Be transparent, lay it all out there, where you want to go and why, and let them help you figure it out. Just let TEDC help you, because that’s what they’re there for.”
TEDC Creative Capital is a community-based funding organization that helps educate entrepreneurs in business skills and provides local financing options ideal for Oklahoma small businesses. Discover how your entrepreneurial venture can benefit from TEDC’s flexible, non-traditional funding vehicles and educational programs.