A fight for a piece of the booming cupcake industry?
Sugar and spice and everything nice might describe cupcakes themselves, but the exploding cupcake industry is anything but. Just in time for holiday baking madness, the New York Times profiles cutthroat cupcake entrepreneurs, who won’t even disclose their profitability for fear of giving an edge to rival enterprises.
Just how big is the cupcake business? One market research firm foresees a 20% increase in US cupcake sales over the next five years. Here in Canada, food and beverage processing is the country’s third-largest industry, with bakeries representing the largest sub-sector.
In Toronto, entrepreneurs looking to sink their teeth into cupcake mania can take advantage of the Toronto Food Business Incubator, a local incubator that provides commercial kitchen facilities, mentoring programs and food industry advice.
If the thought of all those cupcakes has you craving a frosting shot right now, Cupcakes Take the Cake maintains a handy international directory of cupcakeries. Bon appétit!
Kathryn provides market intelligence services to MaRS Advisory Services clients and to The Innovations Group at the University of Toronto. She is a graduate of the University of Toronto's Faculty of Information.
