Michigan-based pie retailer plans to open store in Ann Arbor

It’s the first Washtenaw County location for the growing company.

“We’ve been wanting to get over there for a long time,” co-owner and co-founder Wendy Achatz said from her company’s headquarters in Macomb County.

She’d considered a store in Grosse Pointe at the same time, and previously came close to signing a deal to move into Arborland.

However, she chose to move forward on the location in Traver Village, which formerly housed a dry cleaners, and now is making plans to open by Oct. 1.

The store - which is 2,200-square-feet - is about 50 percent larger than the retailer’s other 7 stores.

One reason is that there will be baking on-site, due to the Ann Arbor store’s distance from the company’s baking headquarters in Chesterfield, northeast of Clinton Township.

Another is that the 18-year-old company is using the Ann Arbor model to experiment with setting up the on-site baking equipment and operating a larger footprint to measure likelihood of success for further expansion and franchising.

“This is our project to see if we can spread this throughout the country,” Achatz said.

That’s a big step for the family owned business, which Achatz founded with her husband, David.

However, sales growth of 24 percent this year - following a year of 49 percent increases - are inspiring Achatz to consider further expansion.

The chain’s most recent retail outlet opened in Beverly Hills, and it also supplies many grocers, including Plum Market, Whole Foods and Hiller’s in Ann Arbor.

Today, the retail locations generate about 25 percent of sales. Another 35 percent comes from fresh pie deliveries in Michigan and Chicago.

Yet most of the growth comes from the ready-to-bake part of the business.

“Frozen, unbaked pies go out by the pallet loads to various big grocery chains that are baking them in their stores,” Achatz said.

The pies are made from Michigan-based products, Achatz said.

“We use about 1 million and a half pounds of fruit from Michigan,” she said.

The company’s pies have been made from as much as 95-percent Michigan products, Achatz said, but a recent change to stop using genetically engineered beet sugar from the state changed that ratio.

That’s just one example of the attention the company pays to the nutritional component of its products, Achatz sid.

The products are preservative- and chemical-free, she added, and many are vegan.

The pies - which come in 50 flavors, but are rotated seasonally - retail for $13.95 to $17.95 for a 10-inch, 3-pound version.

Achatz employs about 150 people, and it adds up to 40 more during the holidays. The Ann Arbor store is likely to be staffed by 6 people to start.

It also will have some seating available for by-the-slice buyers, and other menu items will include soup, coffee, tea and Faygo and Towne Club sodas.

But the focus will remain on the core product.

“We’re not a cafe-bakery,” Achatz said. “We do pies and we do them well.”

Paula Gardner is News Director of AnnArbor.com. Contact her at 734-623-2586 or by email.