At 64 years old, Brett Kratchman did everything he set out to do within the food-and-beverage industry.
He had moved his distribution business into South Jersey from Philadelphia, where he got his start running vending carts, and built a cherished reputation along the way.
He was winding down his career. He was thinking about calling it quits soon.
At least, that’s what he told himself.
Within the past year, he instead has been convinced that retirement age is actually the right time to start anew in the New Jersey manufacturing world. So, he’s trading in a 5-iron for croissants — and leading a European baking company, Moorestown-based Symphony Pastries.
How did this all happen?
Part of the blame falls on his brother, Barry Kratchman, owner of Classic Cake, a family-owned Cherry Hill bakery that was rebuilt after a fire at the pandemic’s onset. When a French pastry chef named Yann Machard, a long-time supplier for Brett Kratchman’s distribution business, offered to sell him his business, the sibling conspiracy began.
“Barry really convinced me it was a great opportunity for the both of us,” he said. “So, I put off my retirement and got back into it. But it’s a space I already know very well, as it’s connected to what I’ve done my whole professional life.
“We talked about how we can scale this up. And that’s the plan.”
Machard, who sold the business last November, worked in France’s top pastry shop before settling into New York’s culinary scene. But, let’s be clear: The Kratchman brothers are Jerseyans; they don’t claim to have been raised amid fine European cuisine.
Brett Kratchman said they bring other recipes for success that the passionate chef didn’t have the time nor energy for, including an emphasis on marketing and sales.
“We’ve been lucky because we’re so far advanced with this operation versus first starting a company,” he added. “With that foundation, one of the advantages we’ve had is having all these relationships (in the food business) that we can leverage.”
His work as a distributor for decades has earned him connections to international chocolate manufacturers and other ingredient suppliers that help them navigate the all-important inflation factor in food manufacturing.
He’s also trying to market Symphony Pastries’ 100 bakery items on offer as a top-of-the-line product, expanding their business in settings such as sports arena skyboxes, first-class airline sections, cruise ships and luxury hotels in major cities.
“That was one of the significant factors in acquiring the company, the fact that the process here is really elevated,” Kratchman said. “We have the technology to cut cakes and do elegant, upscale desserts in a really high-end way already. … We also make everything from scratch, using our own extracts and purees. We grind the coffee beans and make our own espresso for tiramisu.
“Because of price or other factors, not everyone buys our products, but everyone really appreciates our approach.”
Kratchman also wants the Moorestown food manufacturer to be associated with not just the lighter, European-inspired baked fare it historically has been known for, but kosher food items as well as vegan and gluten-free selections.
“We’re also pushing the New Jersey-made angle, because it’s something we’re really excited about,” Kratchman said. “We have a circuit of trade shows coming up where we really want to promote our strength as a local company.”
At those trade shows, Kratchman will be busily touting the great team he’s inherited and how he’s working to build it out right in the Garden State in the coming years.
And there’s nothing else he’d prefer to be doing.
“I’m going to be working for a while,” he said.
Conversation Starters
Reach Symphony Pastries at symphonypastries.com or call 856-727-9596.
Reach Classic Cake at classiccake.com or call 856-751 – 5448.
