Baking Principles into the Business

How Dancing Deer, a small Boston bakery, rose up to become a multimillion-dollar business -- without losing its socially responsible core values

by Stacy Perman

When Patricia Karter and her two partners co-founded the award-winning Dancing Deer Bakery in Boston in 1994, they did so with a simple yet unconventional business philosophy: If bakers love what they do, it shows in the food. A decade later, that guiding principle has helped propel the natural, home-baked goods outfit into a fast-growing business that's both unstintingly consistent to its core values (all-natural ingredients, philanthropy, environmentalism, and employee development) and highly profitable: Sales are expected to reach $8 million this year, a 40% jump from 2004.

The quirky bakery that has earned financial success and industry accolades actually got its start as a result of serendipity. Karter, a former entrepreneur who had returned to her true passion, painting, had fallen in love with the cakes and cookies of baker Suzanne Lombardi. At the time, Lombardi was selling her goods at coffeehouses around Boston, hauling her pots and pans to a rented kitchen each day.

Lombardi asked Karter, who had a master's degree in public and private management from Yale, for business advice, and they ended up launching a company together. "She was an amazingly talented baker," says Karter, "and I decided to invest in her."

SWEET SUCCESS.

Karter and her then-husband, Ayis Antoniou, poured $20,000 into Dancing Deer and set up the fledgling outfit in an old pizza parlor in the inner-city neighborhood of Roxbury. The original plan had Lombardi and Antoniou, a business strategist and foodie, involved in the day-to-day operations, while Karter would spend half a day each week on design issues and consulting.

Capitalizing on the growing popularity of gourmet coffeehouses, the Dancing Deer team saw an untapped market for quality baked goods to be sold alongside the double espressos. "The coffeehouses were sophisticated, but there wasn't much to eat that was good," says Karter, "and natural products weren't really available."

What began as a hobby investment quickly took off. Sales of Dancing Deer's made-to-order Snickerdoodle cookies, shortbreads, and deep, dark gingerbread cake were so brisk that a year after launching, Karter put her paintbrushes down temporarily to help guide Dancing Deer as it grew into a more formal business. Indeed, within two years Dancing Deer's sales reached $283,000 and the following year more than doubled, hitting $692,000. "I thought I would take three to four months off," says Karter. "That was 11 years ago."

RECIPE FOR RESPONSIBILITY.

From the outset, Dancing Deer strived to be more than just another small-business bakery. The trio resolved to create a company and working environment that was, as Karter explains, "exceptional." It would not only make good cookies but also make good business, and it would do so by remaining socially responsible.

Almost since its inception, Dancing Deer has won awards for its baked goods and innovative business practices, as well as its dedication to the community and the inner city where it operates.

"Dancing Deer is a successful company with an incredible reputation," says Deirdre Coyle, a senior vice-president with the Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, a Boston-based, national nonprofit. "It is an incredible asset for Boston's inner city and a role model for cities across the U.S. They demonstrate what can be done and what should be done."

PEOPLE POWER.

To begin with, all employees have an ownership stake in the company. Dancing Deer provides all staffers with health insurance, paid lunches, and overtime. A majority of the bakery's 60 workers are immigrants. Karter says when many of them started, they barely spoke English. Today, however, many serve in management positions.

In 1998, when the company outgrew its space, Karter decided that instead of moving to a bigger and cheaper location in the suburbs, she would stay in Roxbury so as not to lose her staff, many of whom lived in the area. "We had built this workforce," she says. "And they are a big part of why we were successful. We needed to hang onto them."