“Time to Make the Donuts.” We have all seen the TV Commercial with Fred the Baker…better known as the Time to Make the Donuts guy. He wanders into work sleepy repeating this phrase in a somber tone. His commitment and responsibility to his customers while admirable have nothing on Allen Heldt.
A full plate doesn’t isn’t bad for you as long you balance and control your portions. While this article is about food the message is not. Allen Heldt, owner of Morning Fresh Bakeries, Biggie’s Pizza and Scrappie’s Subs, has a lot to manage alongside being a parent and Adrian City Commissioner. When asked how he manages all of these things he mentions having balance and a great group of people around him to help manage portions of his everyday activities.
Allen Heldt had a lot of struggles growing up. He had to work for everything he has today. When he first started, as a business owner, he took over Enzo’s Pizza in the Adrian Mall and re-branded it into Biggie’s Pizza. A nickname he had growing up. Allen had a strong following over the years, but closed Biggies to focus on a larger opportunity, which was to take over ownership of Morning Fresh Bakeries. Heldt bought the bakery in 2016. Morning Fresh Bakeries was already an established business in the community, so it was important to him to keep the business operating at the standard that had been set for many years. Heldt expressed, “When I bought Morning Fresh in 2016, I wanted to keep this great local icon moving in a positive direction. Morning Fresh has been a staple in our community for over 30 years. My goal when taking over, was to continue to provide great service, and produce a quality product.” This did not mean that Biggie’s Pizza was down for the count, Heldt just wanted to take some time to learn how to transition from pizza dough to “dough”nuts.
Some of the trends in the donut industry are specialty donuts. Morning Fresh started to get creative with some of their donuts to give their customers something different. However, you still have your fan favorites, like the Persian or the crème filled Long Johns, and the old- fashioned glazed. There is nothing better that a donut and coffee on a Saturday morning.
The product speaks for itself here at Morning Fresh Bakeries. There is a reason they continue to win the “Best of Lenawee” honors several times over. With that said, with every new venture, challenges arise. The biggest challenge that the donut industry faces on a yearly basis is rising costs. As with everything in our daily lives, money is a factor. Morning fresh has a reputation of making quality products that are always superior to our competitors. Heldt stated, “With the rising cost of products, we’ve had to adjust to maintain the same margin. We have overcome this issue by bringing more vendors to the table.” This has provided other businesses the opportunity to carry the Morning Fresh product, which in turn keeps the prices reasonable. Expanding the business was another goal I set and was able to accomplish.
Morning Fresh Bakeries has two locations to serve, both on Main Street. One on the South and one North. “Having two locations can be tough at times. I’m blessed to have a fantastic management team in place that run their departments within the company. Being the owner, I’m in both my locations everyday helping support management and making sure they have the tools to succeed,” Heldt said. The nicest part of having two locations is for the convenience of the customer and the proximity of where they live. That way they can get their Morning Fresh fix without having to drive across town.
Morning Fresh continues to spread the love in Lenawee County. As it stands now, they are doing 40 more dozen per day in “wholesale.” You can find Morning Fresh Donuts at most of the gas stations in Adrian, Blissfield, Morenci, and Onsted to name a few.
You might ask, where does Biggie’s Pizza fit in to all of this? I know that as a customer, I was sad to see Biggies close at the Mall but knew from discussions with Biggie himself, that he would reopen again when the time was right. “It was always my goal to open Biggie’s Pizza back up, but Morning Fresh is such a big operation, I wanted to learn the business first before I turned my focus on the pizza shop,” Heldt stated. Logistically, the only way that Biggie’s could reopen is adding the operation in the donut shop. By doing this it created better hours, more traffic, and easier access to the building. That seems like a piece of “pie” or cake…right? Not exactly, Heldt knew the hardest part would be making the two seemingly different food businesses mesh together. Planning was the key to Biggie’s successful launch. It didn’t take long to work through any small issues, especially those he anticipated. Allen utilized Social Media to keep his clients informed of any issues they were having when it came to the transition. Always a smart move to hungry people craving New York’s Best!
Heldt has since applied the same approach when bringing back Scrappie’s Subs to his South Main location. Another product that customers in Adrian have been craving for some time.
Owning a successful business like Morning Fresh, Biggie’s Pizza and Scrappie’s Subs would keep anyone busy but Allen Heldt also serves as an Adrian City Commissioner. Time management is of the essence for Heldt to make all of this work. Heldt admits, “Being a full-time parent as well as a local business owner is a lot by itself. When you throw in being a city commissioner, at times it is overwhelming. With that said, I’m very lucky to have great employees to run the day to day business, which allows me to focus more on growing the business as well as making myself available to the public and my kids.”
Allen Heldt doesn’t stop there. If he isn’t “making the donuts,” stretching pizza dough, making Adrian a better place to live, he coaches a youth football team. He is also a lunch buddy for the Adrian Public Schools. If that is not enough, his business provides school discounts to all Lenawee county schools, as well as many non-profits in our community. Heldt simply stated, “As a local business giving back is rewarding the community that supports us.”
Article by: Deanna Garno
Interview by: Get Lenawee
