Brezel is celebrating two years in business at The North Market by growing and expanding both in terms of physical space and business model. The hand-rolled Bavarian-style pretzel shop recently scooted one spot over, taking the slightly larger stall vacated by Clever Crow in December.
“With the additional space, more of our team members are able to work at the same time, and this allows us to increase our capacities and take on bigger clients that we may not have been able to accommodate previously,” said Brittany Baum, owner of Brezel. “We’re also now open seven days per week.”
Baum says that better visibility was also a key factor in their relocation. A large new sign and menu board has been installed, featuring a revamped Brezel logo created by local designer Jeremy Slagle.
“Our new space is located on a corner of the North Market, so now a customer can see our shop from the other end of the building,” said Baum. “The additional windows have also provided us with more opportunities to market to potential customers outside of the market, and lots of natural light is a bonus.”
The increased production capacity of the larger space will lend itself to the addition of a frozen retail line of pretzels that will be rolling out very soon thanks to a new partnership with Eat Well Distribution.
“We had always considered a retail line in the back of our minds, but we had a lot of constraints due to the size and nature of our business,” said Baum. “Eat Well Distribution has made our goals achievable, and we are hopeful that this retail line will produce new customers, more name recognition and growth in the current areas of our business.”
The new frozen pretzel products will arrive on store shelves in four flavors initially: Original, Cinnamon Sugar, Jalapeno and Rosemary, Garlic & Olive Oil.
“We were hoping to meet our self-imposed Super Bowl deadline, but unfortunately that didn’t happen,” said Baum on the timing of the frozen pretzel launch. “We’re expecting to be in many of the Columbus grocery stores that sell local products in the next couple of weeks.”
North Market shoppers can expect to see new flavors debut in the Spring, as well as possible new faces behind the counter. With the growth of the business comes the opportunity to hire additional staff and Baum encourages anyone looking for a position on their team to email a resume to [email protected].
More information can be found online at www.brezelpower.com.
Photos by Anne Evans.