Craig’s Cookies built 23 stores on a mom’s recipe. Franchising is taking it across Canada.

Craig Pike, founder of Craig’s Cookies, joins BNN Bloomberg to discusses how he built his cookie empire, which has now amassed 23 locations in Canada.

Next stop, Halifax, N.S.

With 23 stores across Canada, Craig Pike is leaning on franchising to expand his cookie business.

The founder of Craig’s Cookies created a national cookie brand with his mom’s recipe ten years ago.

“We’re seeing so much support for our business, being a Canadian business within the franchising model,” said Pike.

Most of the stores are still concentrated in Ontario, and the cookie chain is pushing further across Canada.

Pike said the company has a store in St. John’s, N.L., where he is from, it opened a location in Calgary, Alta. two weeks ago and the Halifax store will open early next year.

What is so different about these cookies?

Pike said while the cookies began with a homegrown base recipe, he added his own touch.

“I started putting little chocolate bars, like my favorite chocolate bars, inside the cookie,” Pike said.

“It started with an Oreo, and then, like a Mars bar, peanut butter cup, Twix bars. And now we’ll put anything in a cookie.”

The brand is known to be intentionally experimental.

It even put chicken nuggets and pizza in its cookies last year during the Canadian National Exhibition, which is known for its over the top, unusual foods.

“It was a huge hit at the CNE last summer. You dipped it in barbecue sauce. So the world is our oyster, or the world is our cookie when it comes to flavours,” said Pike.

Pike’s story

Pike said he started the business as a side hustle in 2013 to cover his bills when he had a month off of work from acting at the Shaw Festival.

“I hopped on social media. Said, ‘does anybody want a cookie?’ Somebody did. I biked them over to Parkdale in Toronto and sold about 200 dozen cookies that first month,” said Pike.

He said he spent the next five years continuing the pop-up-style approach, before opening a first brick-and-mortar store in Toronto in 2018.

Franchising is the growth engine

While the company has seven corporate stores, it switched to the franchising model to grow, especially as demand surged during the pandemic.

“Everybody wanted to send folks sweet little treats,” Pike said. “And then I saw that as an opportunity–that growth– to be able to expand the business,” said Pike adding that he sees a lot of growth in Canadian grown businesses right now.

Pike said selecting franchisees is about “quality over quantity”.

“As a member of the queer community, it’s important to be socially active within our communities,” Pike said.

He also pointed to a specific risk that comes with the franchising route.

“When you talk about franchisees, it can be that you can lose control over your business quite quickly,” Pike said, highlighting the importance of hospitality.

“I guess it’s the Newfoundlander in me to try to put that first and foremost.“ (It is) is also really something that we strive for.”

He said his biggest lesson about failure came from acting, which is to admit what you don’t know and lean on other people’s expertise.

“I didn’t go to business school, I didn’t go to baking school. And so what I’ve learned is literally from people that are smarter than me,” said Pike.