BOSTON — To set itself apart, Boston-based Fancypants Baking Co. focuses on creating cookies with a homemade taste and committing to sustainability. The products cater to the notion that when most consumers eat a cookie, they want it to be an indulgent experience. While cookies can be seen as a splurge, Fancypants starts with the basic cookie ingredients — butter, sugar, flour — and avoids additives or preservatives.
The emerging brand also accommodates consumers who actively look for snacks that reduce environmental impact. Fancypants donates its cookie waste — crumbs, dropped and burnt product — to Vanguard Renewables, a company dedicated to transforming organic waste into renewable natural gas.
“It powers the local farms, housing and other businesses in the community,” explained Maura Duggan, founder and CEO of Fancypants. “We’ve partnered with Vanguard for a few years now, and it’s amazing because [our waste] is going to something that helps the environment and is not just being brought to a dump.”
The brand is also active with sustainability initiatives through mindful packaging and upcycled ingredients such as oat flour, which is derived from the pulp left after making oat milk. By baking with upcycled oat and okara flour, Fancypants diverted enough greenhouse gas emissions to charge 2.7 million cell phones and saved 25 million gallons of water in one year.
“People are looking for indulgent, but they are also more aware of the importance of sustainability initiatives,” Duggan said. “Our cookies say that if you’re going to make a choice between brands, pick up the bag with upcycled ingredients and 100 percent recyclable packaging.”
Besides the sustainability features, Fancypants focuses on packaging that’s as eye-catching as its original cookies in the ISBs. The vibrant design features a playful peacock interacting with the differing cookie flavor ingredients.
“It’s important that people first buy with their eyes,” Duggan said, noting it’s the first step in a positive eating experience. “Fancypants is meant to be that little moment where you reach in a bag and you grab a cookie or two, and you just feel happy — that was really what I wanted the brand to convey.”
Stemming from its founder’s dedication to quality control, Fancypants selfmanufactures its cookies to ensure each one meets the brand’s high standards.
“Self-manufacturing provides 100 percent control all the time,” Duggan said. “It allows us to scale up or down, given economic issues. When you have your own manufacturing, you’re able to do that. It’s a challenge, but it’s worthwhile.”
“Our cookies say that if you’re going to make a choice between brands, pick up the bag with upcycled ingredients and 100 percent recyclable packaging.” — Maura Duggan | founder and CEO | Fancypants Baking Co.
The current operation manufactures 500,000 cookies on one shift per five-day workweek but plans for expanded production capabilities that will eventually require two full shifts six days a week are in the works.
Fancypants cookies are distributed and sold through multiple channels that include the company’s website, online retailers such as Imperfect Foods, and a combination of conventional and specialty stores across the nation, including supermarket chains in Texas, California and Massachusetts.
“That’s our strategy: to fill out the country in everyday markets and communities,” Duggan said. “We’re in about 1,750 stores and adding more every day.”
That’s not to say scaling up won’t render its own challenges, such as financial obstacles that follow increased production demands. When the product was first distributed into markets outside the Northeast, grants from smaller banks and the low-interest loans received from Whole Foods’ Local Producer Loan Program (LPLP) were critical to the brand’s success.
“Privately funding a growing business is definitely a challenge,” Duggan said. “But the LPLP loans from Whole Foods are a concrete example of how important it is to get access to funding. It allowed us to hire and reach more people, and it allowed us to grow.”
Fancypants used the money to invest in additional industrial ovens and replace malfunctioning equipment. The funding also transformed the brand’s consumer reach practically overnight, increasing its presence into 280 stores.
As for future distribution plans, Duggan believes robust sales will provide easy access to airport markets, c-stores and club stores.
“You can easily change package size or configuration and service customers who shop at those types of stores, so we have really big plans in the works,” she said. “We’re thoughtful about who we approach and when. By the time we do approach, we’ve been strategic and smart about that person or company.”
A rooted passion for indulgent treats — and a desire to tackle sustainability one cookie at a time — paved the way for Fancypants to firmly nestle on store shelves and extend its growth to
new markets.
This story has been adapted from the October | Q4 2024 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the full story in the digital edition here.
