RBA Roadshow Austin - Scaling Your Bakery Operations

Sarah Quinn
"Beyond the Basics: Employment Compliance for Growing Bakeries"

Sarah Quinn is a Chicago-based Labor and Employment partner at Nixon Peabody who helps retail food businesses navigate complex workplace challenges. She represents employers in wage-and-hour, discrimination, ADA, and FLSA matters, and counsels them on day-to-day compliance, from handbook updates and scheduling practices to accommodation processes and internal complaint procedures. She is known for practical, straightforward guidance that helps busy owners build policies that work before problems arise.

Your bakery has outgrown the basics. You've got a handbook, you're paying overtime correctly, and your policies are in place. Now what? As bakeries add locations, hire managers, or expand into catering and wholesale, new compliance obligations arrive fast: multi-site scheduling laws, supervisory liability, expanded leave requirements, and the shift from informal culture to documented process. In this session, Sarah Quinn builds on the foundational compliance framework and tackles the next tier of employment law challenges facing growing food businesses. She'll cover how to structure management roles to reduce legal exposure, navigate predictive scheduling ordinances in multi-location operations, implement compliant delegation of HR functions, and recognize the triggers, like employee headcount thresholds, that bring new federal and state obligations online. Attendees will leave with a compliance growth checklist, guidance on when to bring in outside HR or legal support, and practical tools for staying ahead of the rules as their operations scale.

Policy Update from our partners at the American Bakers Association

A representative from the American Bakers Association will join us for a policy update on the issues most relevant to retail bakers right now, from labor and wage policy to trade, ingredient costs, and regulatory changes working through Washington. ABA tracks this landscape at the federal level to provide bakery owners with the most up-to-date briefings on which bills and rules are gaining ground, where the industry’s advocacy stands, and what’s likely to hit your business next.

Chimene Mayne-Ross

"The Secret Ingredient: Creating a Culture for Growth"

Chimene Mayne-Ross is a builder of brands, businesses, and the people around her. As Founder and CEO of Killer Brownie®, she has transformed a popular caramel-stuffed brownie into a nationally recognized brand, growing annual sales by 327% since 2019 and expanding into over 10,000 retail locations. A former nurse with 25 years of experience, Chimene brings a nurturing, people-first leadership style to everything she does. Until 2019, she was the company's only salesperson, personally forging relationships and driving growth. Her ability to balance strategic vision with deep passion has turned Killer Brownie® into a category leader, one that's redefining indulgence and proving that a brownie can be more than just dessert.

Behind every growing business is a culture designed to support it. This session shares the key principles, leadership practices, and people-focused strategies that help founders build engaged teams, strengthen culture, and prepare their organizations for long-term growth and expansion.

Michelle's Patisserie

Michelle's Patisserie is an award-winning, Austin-born bakery known for custom cakes, French pastries, desserts, and Afternoon Tea Parties. Founder Michelle Doyon started the business in 2002 out of her home garage and has since grown it into one of Austin's most recognized custom cake shops, earning a spot in the Knot Hall of Fame, multiple "Best of Tasting" awards, a Food Network Big Bake Holiday win, and features on Martha Stewart Weddings and Married at First Sight. In January 2024, Michelle opened a second location in Liberty Hill inside a converted historic house, expanding the brand's French pastry and tea party offerings.

Tootie Pie Co.

Tootie Pie Co. is led by Scott Calvert, RBA's Business Strategies Manager and former RBA Board President. Scott started the business in 1996 as a wedding cake operation called Countryside Baking Company. He moved locations and renamed it The Cake Plate in 2003, then began distributing to broadline partners like Sysco, US Foods, Gordon, and PFG in 2005, which became the bakery's main focus. In 2019, The Cake Plate merged with Tootie Pie Co., expanding into retail, online sales, and business gifting.

Easy Tiger has grown from a 2012 neighborhood bakeshop and beer garden into one of Texas' most recognizable artisan bakeries. Its wholesale operation now produces thousands of handcrafted loaves, rolls, pretzels, and pastries each week for restaurants, cafés, hotels, and grocery partners including H-E-B and Whole Foods. Led by Vice President of Bakery Operations and Certified Master Baker Ben Hershberger, the team produces breads like challah, sourdough, hoagie rolls, and soft pretzels, alongside a pastry program that includes butter croissants, cinnamon knots, and seasonal danishes.