TASTY BAKING COMPANY: AN ENTERPRISE SYSTEM TRANSFORMS AN OLD FAVORITE
Tasty Baking Company's name says it all. It is known for its Tastykake single-portion cupcakes, snack pies, cookies, and donuts, which are pre-wrapped fresh at its bakery and sold through approximately 15,500 convenience stores and supermarkets in the eastern United States. The Philadelphia-based company, which sold $28 in cakes its first day of business in 1914, rang up nearly $170 million in sales in 2007.
Although Tasty Baking Company made customers smile, management and stockholders were frowning. Tasty is a fairly small enterprise in a maturing business, and saw its market share and sales dropping in the mid-1990s. In 2002, profitability levels were at an all-time low, with a -4.9 percent operating margin. To turn the company around, Tasty's new president and CEO Charles Pizzi introduced a new management team and strategic transformation plan.