I am currently researching the bakery business and expecting to open a business by the summer of next year. My two sisters will be business partners. We will carry many different types of bakery products(pastries, breads, and definitely cakes). I would like to know what type of equipment would be needed to produce these items. We have not yet decided on what items would be made from scratch or purchased pre-made through a vender. What would be some of the basic equipment needed to get us up and running.

Thanks a million
Cynita

a lot of equipment is determined by your health dept. Most likely.....

- a 3 compartment sink (wash/rinse/sanitize)
- hand washing sink (in Indiana, we have to have one every 25 feet)
- if you do food prep, a separate food prep sink
- mop sink/basin
- refrigerator and freezer .... my health dept needs to know something about my volume and how much food I will have on hand so they can determine if I have sufficient cold storage or not.
- storage racks for cleaning supplies, away from your food storage
- storage racks for dry storage
- oven .... I recommend convection
- sheet pan racks, great for add'l storage as baked items are cooling
- large mixer and mixer stand
- work tables, sufficient for the volume of business and enough to avoid cross contamination.
- smallware and storage for them
- health dept approved flooring, ceilings and wall treatments
- grease trap
- commerical dishwasher or sanitation chemicals for sink washing
- if you have a stove, then you will need an overhead hood vent

Ok, fellow CC'ers, I've run dry .... what did I forget?

Wow, thank you. Would the HD come out prior to the installation to at least let me know what is needed and where it should be before I install or set up the equipment?

They work with you thru the whole process. I had to get my floor plans from the designer; they then had to be stamped and approved by an architect. Those plans were taken to the building commissioner to get construction permits and taken to the health dept so they could approve them. These are also the plans I give to the contractor for the build out. The health dept will look at workflow, cold storage, etc. If they see something out of whack, they will work with you to get it set up right for you.

When you are ready to get started, just contact them to find out what they are going to need from you. They are very helpful.

A sheeter is a very important part of our bakery. It gets used by the bakers at night to make the dough work go much fast, cake decorators for the marzipan covered cakes, I use it on my wedding/specialty cake and our chefs use it for rolling pizza doughs and what not.

You'll need a safe that is bolted to the ground, walk in fridge or reach in fridge + freezer. Speed racks are vital in our kithcen too, its good to have the ones that have doors on them too for some stuff.

Price out companies to do your towels, aprons and coats or if your going to wash these yourself at first, start watching for the sales on this stuff.

thats all i can think of....GOOD LUCK! Oh and check out ebay, we find a lot of great stuff on there.

If it were me I would also consider getting a fryer. Donuts are a very important part of a traditional bakery's business.

Thanks so much, everyone. All of the information has been very helpful. Also, are most of the large equipment used in a bakery on a leasing program because I researched the equipment and it is extremely expensive.
Thanks.

I checked into leasing. It's actually harder to do. If you are getting a business loan, the bank likes to hold a lein on the equipment and if it's leased equipment, they can't really do that. Also the place leasing it to you puts you thru as much of a credit check and payback ability as a bank for a loan. Definitely check it out, but just be aware it's not as simple as everyone makes it sound. One place was willing to lease me the commercial dishwasher ($7-8000 item) but only if I purchased the other stuff, since they considered me a start-up and not an expansion.

Check with your bank about leasing equipment. My "real" job is with a bank, and although I am not sure of the qualifying criteria, we provide leases for equipment necessary to maintain many businesses (i.e., computers for any office, imaging equipment for a dr.'s office).

Good luck!
~Amber