Courtesy Esperanto
Esperanto, a fast-casual restaurant that has been a Caroline Street institution for nearly 25 years, officially opened its new commercial bakery at 357 Milton Ave. in Ballston Spa in October.
The 2,700-square-foot facility will enable Esperanto to increase production of its signature product, the Oboy. Originally known as the Doughboys, it is a handheld on-the-go snack made of chicken, cheeses and spices and cooked in pizza dough.
It has been a well-known product in Saratoga Springs for years.
Last year, Esperanto’s started selling the product at Stewart’s Shops across the region. It sparked the need for Esperanto to expand. The new facility will create and retain nearly 40 jobs, accelerate production, and generate new revenue and growth opportunities, officials said.
With the Oboy’s widespread name recognition, a strong restaurant, concession and catering presence, and the rising popularity of “grab and go” food items, Esperanto sees a major opportunity to build and grow a vibrant wholesale business, officials said.
The production facility will allow it to meet pent-up demand from a number of soon-to-be wholesale customers, while also pursuing new prospects to sell Oboys in convenience stores, college dining facilities, entertainment venues, and other locations.
“The uniqueness and broad appeal of our signature Oboy has created mouth-watering opportunities to grow our business. The only thing standing in our way has been finding a way to make more Oboys, and now, this commercial bakery opens the door,” said Will Pouch, founder and owner of Esperanto.
The Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership, a Saratoga County-based economic development organization, gathered business, community and government leaders at a media event to help launch the expansion.
“We appreciate the incredible support and guidance of the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership throughout this process, and the funding from WDI (Workforce Development Institute) to ensure our workforce is prepared to build their careers and our business,” Pouch said. “This is an exciting time and we’re thrilled to be growing in Saratoga County, with the people and within the community that have gotten us this far.”
In evaluating and pursuing the expansion, Esperanto was guided over the past year by the Saratoga Partnership, which provided a host of business and technical services, including site location, procurement assistance, and workforce development expertise, the agency said.
The latter included connecting Esperanto with the WDI, which awarded a $15,000 grant to support employee training and development essential to opening and successfully operating the bakery.
“We are delighted to support Will and the team at Esperanto as they double down on Saratoga County with the opening of their commercial bakery,” said Marty Vanags, president of the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership.
“WDI is very excited to be a part of the workforce development opportunities that Oboy represents. Our main goal is to provide support that leads to retaining and growing good jobs – being a part of this initiative serves our mission perfectly,” said Crickett Thomas-O’Dell, regional director of the Capital Region, WDI.
Esperanto is using the funding from WDI to support employee training in two areas: bakery expansion—including USDA HAACP Certification for Food Safety and ServSafe—and marketing, to include digital product marketing, branding and social media.
Officials said those training efforts will prepare half of Esperanto’s current 25-person workforce to assume increased responsibilities in production, packaging, shipping, inventory control and food handling, while also creating a similar number of new positions, both to backfill and to take on new roles in sales, marketing, and customer management, serving both the bakery and restaurant.
The bakery is expected to drive a sales increase of 80 percent annually over the next three years, spurred initially by reintroducing them in select Stewart’s Shops, officials said.