Why I Became an RPIA Member

By Randy McArthur

I have been asked to give my reasons for becoming a member of RPIA. What follows is my story.

Over the past fifteen or so years, primarily due to my affiliation with RBA I have had the pleasure to get to know a number of bakers from all sections of the United States and the world. I have learned a tremendous amount about the baking business from these individuals. All during that time I prided myself on being open minded and objective. Over that time period most who know me would probably agree, Until last January. That is when two of my close friends began talking about some opportunities to save money on buying mixes.

Our business is comprised primarily of Decorated and Wedding cakes. Over 70% of our volume comes from them. We always made our cakes from scratch so the thought of changing anything for any reason was out of the question, or so I thought. My friends asked me if I could make a better cake than I currently made and save money in the process if I would. Well how would anyone with half a brain answer that one? (Yes I am claiming to have at least half a brain.) I begrudgingly agreed to try the cake mix. If and only if my staff and the boss (my wife) thought the cake mix better than ours would I even look at the pricing issue.

We had vendor A send in enough samples to make 2- 140 qt bowls of each flavor. I had our normal staff bake the cakes through normal equipment. Depositors, mixers etc. The following evening after everyone went home I iced layers of our scratch cake and the Vendor A mix some with white icing some with chocolate. I labeled #1 and #2 then reversed the numbers on the other icing. I asked various staff to taste test, sent some home with them and took some home to my boss. Every single person chose the Vendor A mix as best. (Wow blow to the ego!)

Then I ordered 20 bags of each and used for our cakes. I wanted to see If any customers complained. I heard nothing. Oh well, time to look at price. Vendor A had made a very attractive incentive and rebate proposal to me. If I bought the mix for two years I would get preferred pricing and rebates totaling over $30,000.00. Yes that’s Thirty Thousand Dollars. That was all well and good how about the real price compared to other mixes. Well Vendor A told us how much the distributor would pay for the mix I was to buy. I could then negotiate price with a vendor of my choice.

· Price Structure with RPIA - I would get a rebate on every bag of mix purchased plus an equal amount of incentive money up front. This would get me $30,000 savings in just the first year.

When other distributors saw cake mix in our shop they could not send in the samples fast enough. Being the open-minded guy I claim to be, I tried all. We narrowed to two. Vendor A and Vendor B.

· Price Structure without RPIA - I told my Vendor B (at the time my main supplier) that we had narrowed the mix purchase to him and Vendor A. I had pricing from Vendor A and I needed his pricing so I could make a decision. The following week he brought me a Price Sheet that had the list pricing less a small percentage off per bag that brought the cost to $18 more per 50 lb bag of mix than Vendor A. This would cost me $67,500 per year more than with RPIA.

I was incensed. I asked how could there be that much pad in a bag of mix? How badly are we medium sized bakers getting hosed? I became A RPIA member and began saving.

After I joined RPIA I began to see other areas that promise similar savings. Additionally the types of business people that are involved have much to offer. I would encourage all bakers to join with us and help us revolutionize the way we buy!

McArthurs Party Cake Bakery Inc.

3055 Lemay Ferry Rd.

St. Louis Mo. 63125

Phone 314-894-0900 Fax 894-2369

e-mail randy@mcarthurs.com