Crafted Crumbs: Little Cakes, Big Business

In a culinary race to thrive, new food brands are now playing it smart by adopting a far-reaching online presence and sacrificing the traditional retail markets. In similar pursuit, co-founder Brinda Punjabi along with her sister, Ria, brought to action a home bakery, Crafted Crumbs, that has been in the running for a little short of three years.

Starting her career as a marketing professional, Punjabi shifted her line of work to follow her passion, baking. Cooking became an essential part of her life at the young age of 16 as her mom played the role of a major influencer, baking cakes for her class at school events.

Although her training in the culinary arts is limited to short courses, Punjabi managed to incorporate her formal marketing skills in the business to build the brand. “My marketing background has helped in terms of me putting my brand out there. When you do a business from home, it’s so easy for it to be easy-going. But the whole discipline that I got because of working in a professional background has helped me see this through and get it to where it is today”, said Punjabi. The brand relies on social media and word of mouth to push the products and is also a part of BNI, an entrepreneurial group where entrepreneurs meet once a week and support each other’s businesses.

+ Ria and Brinda Punjabi

+ Granola jars 

While home businesses are now nudged by their marketing on social media, they are still vastly new concepts in comparison to the traditional retail counterparts. Speaking of her experience with the new concept venture, Punjabi said “I think one of the biggest advantages of a home business is in terms of your investment, what you have to spend on a monthly basis is reduced. You don’t have the kind of expenses retail has. We work on order basis. We don’t have stuff that’s ready and lying around so we don’t have wastage. But at the same time, we have to work hard on our front. We have to rely a lot on word of mouth and social media for marketing our business so we can increase our clientele because there’s no window where somebody can go and know about us”.

+ Cookie dough pizza

+ Chocolate domes

As the brand grabs attention through social media and word of mouth, Punjabi claims that they strive harder on their part to keep it interesting and customers reaching out. “We introduce new products every six months to the standard menu and at the same time we are also researching and looking out for healthier options. We keep coming up with stuff which is organic and gluten/sugar free. Ideally, in time I’d like to have a great range of sugar free products because I think that is very essential today. So we are innovating and continuously researching so that we can cater to this market as well”, said Punjabi as she spoke of the expansion in products and their foray into the organic trend of the market. The brand also does customized sizing and packaging for special events.

+ Vegan desserts

Crafted crumbs soon is expanding not just their product line, but also their distribution. The brand has decided to take up on the retail side of things, however, they have no plan to begin their own retail front. Instead they are looking to distribute through existing retail stores.

+ Packaging 

Words by: Sahana Iyer

Crafted Crumbs: BrindaPunjabi – +91 9820101882 @craftedcrumbs