How the Internet helps keep bagel bakeries stocked

It takes a lot to put get that freshly-baked, warm bagel into consumers’ hands at the 800-plus bagel bakeries of New World Restaurant Group. But it’s a process that goes more smoothly since the introduction of the Internet and web analytics into the back-end supply chain, Kim Knutson, New World’s quality assurance director, tells Internet Retailer.

New World, which operates bagel bakeries and cafes under regionally-based brands Einstein Brothers, Noah’s New York Bagels, Manhattan Bagel and Chesapeake Bagel Bakery, contracts with third-party manufacturers to produce bagel dough. Manufacturers freeze and ship the dough to regional distribution centers, where it’s forwarded to the individual stores and baked into bagels.

“Frozen bagel dough is as temperature-sensitive as ice cream,” says Knutson-it must travel at a temperature of zero degrees or below or it will start to deteriorate. To make sure that standard has been maintained, New World uses temperature-sending technology from Sensitech Inc. to accompany boxes of frozen, unbaked bagels in transport. Knutson says Sensitech’s web analytics can be used on the recorded temperature data to flag any variance at any point in transport, which allows her to communicate that information back to the appropriate place so as to correct the problem.

“It’s a huge time-saver just from the data entry perspective. You can pull up historical information or data on specific points or carriers as you need to,” she says. “You can compare data on the web in a couple of clicks versus posting 17 sheets of paper on a bulletin board and saying, ‘What happened?’”