Building A Brand: A Look Into Valhalla Bakery's Growth & Strategy
Valhalla Bakery is a local small business specializing in egg-free and dairy-free desserts. We visited the flagship store in Orlando, Florida, where we got an inside look at how labels help grow their business.
Watch the video below or catch our Q&A with owner and founder Celine Duvoisin to learn more.
OnlineLabels.com: How did you come up with the idea for Valhalla Bakery?
Celine: Valhalla Bakery is something I created out of my kitchen. I was a bakery manager for about 10 years and I loved it, but I decided that I didn't want to work in a corporate environment.
OL: Is that your favorite part of what you do?
C: Absoutely, I get to enjoy what I create again. I wanted something where I had more freedom to create what I wanted to create, and be able to bake things a little more special for people.
As my own boss, I can be myself and connect with my customers. I've been in people's lives since we started the bakery – I've known their kids since they were born, I make their cakes every year.
OL: What is Valhalla Bakery?
C: Valhalla Bakery is an egg-free, dairy-free bakery that specializes in making things that people don't normally make vegan. We don't make it healthy, we don't make it gluten-free – it's just really good egg-free, dairy-free desserts in ways you expect things to taste.
OL: Can you describe the importance of packaging in the food industry?
C: Labeling is really important for two different reasons, the first of which is brand recgonition. When you see something that says Valhalla Bakery, you know we've used the recipes that we've used for years, we know exactly what's gone into them, we know every single step of that recipe.
OL: What products do you use from OnlineLabels.com?
C: We use round labels for our logo, square labels for our ingredient lists, a large sheet as product labels for our wholesale cookie dough buckets, and shipping labels. I've ordered like nine million things from you guys, I love it all.
We also want to make sure you know what's in each product. If there's an allergen or something that you're trying to avoid, we want that information to be available so you can find that answer.
OL: Speaking of ingredient labels, how do you get the information for the nutrition fact panel?
C: I get my nutrition facts by using Recipal. We enter all of our ingredients in there with the recipe and quantity, then it gives us the label information.
OL: You order both blank labels and custom printed labels. How do you decide which designs to print yourself versus order printed?
C: We choose to use pre-printed logo stickers for the consistency of results, and for us to print them would just be such a hassle. We can stock them on-hand in huge amounts because we know they're not going to change.
We choose to use blank labels because we make so many seasonal products. We adjust ingredients and change flavors frequently enough that it doesn't make sense to have a huge amount on-hand. If there's something we want to adapt, Maestro Label Designer makes it really easy to edit the label and pop them off as we need them.
OL: Backtracking for a minute, what's your label design process like?
C: I make everything in Maestro Label Designer and then do a lot of testing to make sure the alignment comes out just right.
OL: What type of printer do you use for the labels you print yourself?
C: We actually have both a laser and inkjet printer, it depends what we're doing and which product they're for. We've used both of the clear label materials and two different weatherproof white label materials – they offer different capabilities and looks.
OL: Once your printed labels arrive or you finish printing them, where do you do the labeling?
C: We do it in the bakery after all the baking is done for the day. We have someone come in who's responsible for the packaging and labeling associated with our wholesale accounts – we get everything together and they line it all up and work through it.
OL: Why did you chose OnlineLabels.com?
C: I went onto the website, it was so easy to use. It was very point-and-click, I found exactly what I needed. Then when I logged into Maestro Label Designer, it's absolutely phenomenal how user-friendly it is.
As somebody that works in a small business and spends a lot of my time creating, I need to be able to do something that's very quick and efficient. My labels come within two days and I'm so happy with everything I've ever gotten from OnlineLabels.com.
They help our business grow with everything they have to offer. We've been a customer since 2014 – we absolutely love the company, it's someone we look forward to working with now and in the future.
OL: What's next for Valhalla Bakery?
C: We are currently working on opening our third location! I'm honestly really looking forward to the ease of use with Maestro Label Designer to adapt the templates so they say "baked in the St. Petersburg location."
Can blank or custom printed labels benefit your growing small business? OnlineLabels.com offers a large variety of label shapes and sizes, perfect for shipping, product labeling, nutrition fact panels, and more. Get in touch with our customer service team at 1-888-575-2235 to see how we can help you today.
