Excess Chocolate Brownie offcuts !!

[Greg PW Shearman]

Hello all - I own a successful Chocolate brownie company and our USP is that the brownies are distinctively round !!!

but this causes a problem .... we have a huge excess of offcuts .

As a factory we don't have the time to process these into another product so are wondering what to do with them and ideally sell them off at a very nominal cost in large quantities !

We do sell some off to a local ice cream company but that doesn't touch the sides ...

Anyone got any ideas or even better a use for them ?

We have full allergen info so can be incorporated into someone else's production !!

 

[JEREMY HAWKE]

Start a retail company to sell them

"Off Cut Treats"

 

[Mark T Jones]

Start a retail company to sell them

"Off Cut Treats"

This - kind of posh broken biscuits!

 

[BubbaWY]

Wastage is obviously a huge problem in a food business. You say the shape is a unique selling point...would it make such a difference if you used a more efficient shape to reduce your wastage? Or is there no sort of mould you could use? I am guessing you bake them in a slab at the moment?

 

[Joyous]

This - kind of posh broken biscuits!

I too have vague memories of a bakery/cookie shop deliberately dropping boxes of biscuits so he could sell them as broken biscuits to children. Would scoop them up into paper bags and sell by weight as I recall.

 

[Shopclicks]

Hello all - I own a successful Chocolate brownie company and our USP is that the brownies are distinctively round !!!

but this causes a problem .... we have a huge excess of offcuts .

I'll ask the obvious question. Why don't you bake them round? Rings on a flat tray or piped into round moulded trays.

 

[DontAsk]

Bake them in round tins!

 

[Greg PW Shearman]

Ok so we bake them in slabs
We trim the edges

We then cut them round

This makes sure every single brownie is from the gooey centre

so baking in rounds is out of question.

We bake 20-50k of them a week

But yes brownie bags are a possibility !!

 

[Ozzy]

Start a retail company to sell them

"Off Cut Treats"

Adding a +1 on this suggestion. Either create a whole product range around them, or sell to someone else who could. Perhaps also finding a wider net of ice cream / treat / type independents too?

I seem to recall the milkman did a roaring trade boxes of broken biscuits too.

 

[japancool]

Send them to me. I'm sure I can dispose of them.

 

[Gecko001]

Now I know why brownies are (nearly) always rectangular.

@Greg PW Shearman idea about the ice cream is a good idea, but perhaps a non disclosure agreement would be needed with the ice cream firm you sell the offcuts to. Or start to make your our ice cream.

 

[IanSuth]

Do you sell online ?

If you do why not add "Brownie bites, selection packs" as an add on to online orders. Assuming you sell a selection of flavours this would allow you to get customers to try different flavours that they may then go on to order as a full price product whilst also making some money without extra shipping cost.

With correct pricing model this could be the "oh i will add 2 packs of those to reach the free shipping limit" kind of think

 

[fisicx]

This makes sure every single brownie is from the gooey centre

I prefer the crunchy edges.

Agree with the others, sell off boxes of brownie crunchy bits. I'd buy them.

 

[Gecko001]

Sorry I realise that you already sell some off to an ice cream company. But perhaps, as per my suggestion, you could start making ice cream yourself. It would make a good story "Brownie company starts own ice cream company as they did not know what to do with their brownie offcuts". That sort of thing.

 

[Greg PW Shearman]

Some great suggestions - due to the way we well I don't want to upset our current sales stream ....

So I either create a new brand or via a third party

As a manufacturing hub we are efficient and little space or desire to invest in another 'line' , however just packaging without further processes could work.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

Probably doesn't fit with what would work for you based on what you've said above but just as a comment, when I had a bakers (by the way - talking a drop in the ocean compared to what you're doing!) when we had broken brownies or they occasionally hadn't come out gooey enough or we had an excess, we turned them into "brownie pots" - broken up pieces of brownie mixed in with toppings in individual dessert pots. We did salted caramel sauce with toffee chunks, strawberries & cream, rocky road with biscuits & raisins, etc.

As I say probably more hassle than you want to go down but maybe an idea for other people who could buy them off you to create other things.

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

P.s. a personal thankyou to everyone that contributed to this thread by way of a bag full of brownie offcuts each..... that would be a superb idea

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

By creating a new offcuts product, you could get into a new retailer/outlet. Aldi/Lidl/Poundland all love these things and could create a new revenue stream and even an outlet for your core products.

What is the offcuts associated with 20k of brownies? 200kg?

Hell, if you do not want to do this, i would create a business to do it!

 

[Cre8 Business]

Hello all - I own a successful Chocolate brownie company and our USP is that the brownies are distinctively round !!!

but this causes a problem .... we have a huge excess of offcuts .

As a factory we don't have the time to process these into another product so are wondering what to do with them and ideally sell them off at a very nominal cost in large quantities !

We do sell some off to a local ice cream company but that doesn't touch the sides ...

Anyone got any ideas or even better a use for them ?

We have full allergen info so can be incorporated into someone else's production !!

Out of interest, what stats do you have to show that round cookies are more appealing (or actually sell better), than normal cookies and more to the point, have you done a feasibility study to show that the increased sales provide a better profit than normal ones, taking into account the wastage you are experiencing?

 

[NickGrogan]

How many kilos of brownie bits are you currently disposing of per day/week
What is this costing approx?
What would be a fair price for all the brownie bits?
Where in the UK are you?

 

[DontAsk]

P.s. a personal thankyou to everyone t

You need to hand out Brownie points.

 

[Ozzy]

You need to hand out Brownie points.

...went straight to comments and they did not disappoint

 

[WaveJumper]

This maybe a daft suggestion but is there anyway you can "press' the off cuts using a mould or something similar even you have to add something of a sticky nature to hold this together and thus create an off shoot product ...........Brownie Monsters

 

[DontAsk]

You need to hand out Brownie points.

And there's your product.

First cut into squares then cut the circle out of each square. The offcuts have a concave side and a point.

Package them up as brownie points. They could be handed out at corporate events.

 

[tony84]

Everyone knows broken biscuits taste better!

Maybe food banks or childrens hospital wards in the short term until you sort somewhere out to sell? Good PR too if you promoted it.

Local restaurants.
Box them up and sell them to local shops.
You could box them up and sell them to warehouses that deal in best before stuff? Rogers wholesale is an example of one. Give them a shout, see what they would take off you.

 

[MarkOnline]

I dont think you have enough for a larger food jobber or a large discount retailer, but there will be smaller jobbers about who would love regular smaller quantities. If it was me I would contact a short coded food dealer. Dee Bee Grimsby was one I found after a 5 sec google search there are others.
Good luck.

 

[Buryblue]

Company Shop would sell this.

 

[Kixoponev]

Company Shop would sell this.\

That's not accurate

 

[BillyB]

It might be worth having a chat to Yearsley Food who own XSell, they repackage broke, offcut, mishaped foods and sell in retail stores like Herons & B&M's. The only issue is there may not be enough offcuts for them to take.

Also could be an option on the website where someone pays say £2.99 plus shipping for a brownie taster box and the customer will then get a box full of offcuts to try out. Sometimes I'm a bit hesitant to place a big order on a small business's website but if they can offer a a taster box I'm usually first to ordering that.

Or do a Brownie Club on the website where customers pay per month on a subscription basis and for that they get brownie offcuts, taste new brownie flavours and maybe even a discount on shipping (would obviously need to be all costed out).

 

[ecommerce84]

The issue you’ll have selling them as off cuts is that they’ll go stale quickly.

Broken biscuits keep their crunch once in airtight packaging whereas thin brownie off cuts will quickly go hard.

That’s why ice cream is ideal for them as they can be frozen down and there is plenty of moisture in the ice cream as well as being a different texture that it doesn’t really matter if they aren’t ’fresh fresh’. I’d try and find other ice cream vendors to cut a deal with.

You could try direct to customer but I personally think you’ll struggle to sell the volume you have and I can’t see any big retailer or distributor wanting to stock them due to the short shelf life.

 

[IanSuth]

There was a pizza company in Reading who solf square & rectangular pizza - their selling point was that each box contained 21% more pizza.

That is the wastage from cutting a round brownie from a square - if you cut them square and put up prices 10% you can still advertise 21% more cookie for 10% more cost whilst reducing your wastage - may be worth a trial run of square cookies maybe with a distinct name as you market your other very round cookies

(a 10x10 square has an area of 100, a 10 diameter circle has an area of 78.53)

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

There was a pizza company in Reading who solf square & rectangular pizza - their selling point was that each box contained 21% more pizza.

That is the wastage from cutting a round brownie from a square - if you cut them square and put up prices 10% you can still advertise 21% more cookie for 10% more cost whilst reducing your wastage - may be worth a trial run of square cookies maybe with a distinct name as you market your other very round cookies

(a 10x10 square has an area of 100, a 10 diameter circle has an area of 78.53)

Pedant alert.... that's not 21% more pizza, that's 27.5% more....

 

[IanSuth]

Pedant alert.... that's not 21% more pizza, that's 27.5% more....

I think they actually advertised "our competitors 12" pizza is 21% smaller that our Son of the Beast foot square pizza " so I just forgot to change the order of the comparison.

They also did a huge rectangular pizza called "the beast" that was 24 square slices (6x4) and they offered a sampler where you got 4 squares each of 6 varieties.

I think it was my mates who made them go bust as they had tokens on the box lids that you could save up and redeem for free sides or even pizza. Mates lived above the shop with the grunden bin all the dead boxes ended up in by the stairs to their door.

Every student party they attended they brought a carrier bag of tokens and we ordered massive amounts of pizza for free.

The other issue was they had to use delivery cars as the Beast was too big for a moped box (this was before the days of the big black pizza carriers every PCX125 now seems to sport

 

[Jprandss]

Simple to me-

Get square cutters with rounded corners, and have a phenomenal amount less waste...

Still have your USP, give customers a little more brownie, easier to package in cardboard (move around less).

It would also give you a star shaped offcut, which you may well be able to make an alternative product from.

As for the edges that you cut, these could be made into thick brownie milkshakes, which you could also advertise at the events you do. Blended brownie, milk, secret sauce. Blend at the event. Winter brownie hot chocolate shake?

Its always worth adding a drink option to your core product.

 

[japancool]

Pedant alert.... that's not 21% more pizza, that's 27.5% more....

27.39% to be even more pedantic.

 

[Greg PW Shearman]

Out of interest, what stats do you have to show that round cookies are more appealing (or actually sell better), than normal cookies and more to the point, have you done a feasibility study to show that the increased sales provide a better profit than normal ones, taking into account the wastage you are experiencing?

Our brand is well known across festivals and we stand out.

People now know about us and everything from branding to round brownies is recognisable !

So we can’t / won’t change now !

 

[Greg PW Shearman]

Simple to me-

Get square cutters with rounded corners, and have a phenomenal amount less waste...

Still have your USP, give customers a little more brownie, easier to package in cardboard (move around less).

It would also give you a star shaped offcut, which you may well be able to make an alternative product from.

As for the edges that you cut, these could be made into thick brownie milkshakes, which you could also advertise at the events you do. Blended brownie, milk, secret sauce. Blend at the event. Winter brownie hot chocolate shake?

Its always worth adding a drink option to your core product.

Our two shops do offer milkshakes but the wastage usage is negligible!

 

[Greg PW Shearman]

This maybe a daft suggestion but is there anyway you can "press' the off cuts using a mould or something similar even you have to add something of a sticky nature to hold this together and thus create an off shoot product ...........Brownie Monsters

Yes that was one idea we added extra chocolate to mould and extra ingredients to make it work and it cost more than an original brownie !!!

 

[Greg PW Shearman]

How many kilos of brownie bits are you currently disposing of per day/week
What is this costing approx?
What would be a fair price for all the brownie bits?
Where in the UK are you?

We are based in South Wales but can send large quantities by pallet

I think best solution is to sell to a fellow producer who can use them all up in large quantities.

 

[Paul Kelly ICHYB]

What is the shelf life of the brownies?