North Carolina is the top producer of sweet potatoes in the United States, accounting for nearly half of all sweet potatoes grown in the country. So it stands to reason that Millchap Purveyors, LLC would produce what they believe is the “first and only baked cracker made with real sweet potatoes” on the market today in the Old North State. With an equipment cost share award from the N.C. Value-Added Cost Share Program (NCVACS), coordinated by N.C. MarketReady, Millchap Purveyors has added equipment to enhance and increase production of its Polka Dot Bake Shop sweet potato crackers and grow the business.
The cost share award helped Millchap Purveyors purchase a machine to seal its bags of sweet potato crackers. The new bags increase the shelf life of the crackers, allowing them to be shipped further and into new markets.
The NCVACS award provided Millchap with roughly $24,000, or half of the total cost, toward four pieces of production and packaging equipment for the company’s sweet potato cracker products. Most of the equipment is part of a proprietary production process that the owners don’t share, but Jennifer Chapman, co-owner of Millchap Purveyors and Polka Dot Bake Shop, explains that until this new equipment was installed, production was a “very manual process” and quite time consuming. It prevented the business from achieving the level of efficiency required to meet the increasing demand for the crackers. The cost share award has changed that.
In less than two years, Polka Dot Bake Shop’s sweet potato crackers have grown to five flavors: Original, Chipotle & Smoked Paprika, Crushed Black Pepper, Gluten-free Crushed Black Pepper and Rosemary with Olive Oil.
The business has a dozen employees and more than $100,000 in annual sales of the crackers. With the new equipment in place, Chapman thinks the company can double its sales of the sweet potato crackers in 2011.
The NCVACS award and equipment have “sent us into the next atmosphere,” says Chapman.
Based in Charlotte, Millchap Purveyors and the Polka Dot Bake Shop were founded in 2007, just as the economic recession was nearing its peak. Understanding that “a local bakery would only go so far,” Chapman and co-owner Michelle Miller knew they needed “something different” to take the business further. The partners eventually came up with the idea for a sweet potato cracker (there were plenty of sweet potatoes in North Carolina, after all) in August 2008. By June 2009, they had launched Polka Dot Bake Shop’s sweet potato crackers at the annual Summer Fancy Food Show in New York City.
From left: Jennifer Chapman and Michelle Miller, co-owners of Millchap Purveyors and Polka Dot Bake Shop.
Polka Dot Bake Shop’s sweet potato crackers are made using thousands of pounds of real, farm-fresh sweet potatoes, grown in North Carolina. Currently, the crackers are sold in 200 stores across the country and North Carolina. They are available in “mom and pop operations,” says Chapman, and they have found their way onto shelves at more than 30 Whole Foods Market stores in the mid-Atlantic and Southern California regions. The owners hope to work with distributors in several regions of the U.S. to broaden placement in 2011.
NCVACS is coordinated by N.C. MarketReady, the Cooperative Extension outreach of the N.C. State University Plants for Human Health Institute, located at the N.C. Research Campus. Funded by the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund Commission and the Family Farm Innovation Fund (2010), the cost share program was launched in 2009 to encourage more North Carolina producers to apply for federal funding and to generate more competitive applications.
The Polka Dot Bake Shop offers a variety of goodies in addition to the crackers, such as gourmet, home-made brownies, challah, cupcakes and muffins, all made fresh and from scratch each day using natural ingredients. The retail location is 1730 E. Woodlawn Road, Suite H (Parktowne Village) in Charlotte.
For more information on Millchap Purveyors and Polka Dot Bake Shop:
www.polkadotbakeshop.com
704-943-0712
Applications for NCVACS 2011 Equipment Cost Share are now available. Applications are due by
August 31, 2011. Guidelines and a list of frequently asked questions are provided.
Writer: Justin Moore
