“These are my mother’s recipes. My parent’s legacy is ensuring that our products are the highest quality ones on the market -- food that we take pride in, and that we want to eat ourselves.”
Matthew GroganChief Operating Officer
Sweet Sam’s Bakery started in the late 1980s as a one-man distribution business.
Pivoting from a clothing retail career, Matthew Grogan’s father personally delivered baked goods across the Bronx and neighboring states, forging relationships one customer at a time. “He’d deliver the goods himself, and get to know people on a first-name basis,” Matthew recalls. This commitment to personal connections laid the foundation for the bakery’s success.
In 1991, the family transitioned from distributing to creating their own gourmet products. Operating out of a modest 4,000-square-foot space, they focused on premium ingredients and high-quality recipes crafted by Matthew’s mother. Their Bronx roots and family ethos remain at the heart of their operations to this day, and many employees have been with the company for decades, fostering a strong sense of community and shared purpose. “The Bronx has always been integral to our story,” Matthew says. “It’s a community of hardworking, passionate people, and that’s who we are as well.”
“Quality is not an end point. It’s a continuous process, and we’re laser-focused on constantly improving.”
This philosophy helped Sweet Sam’s land a transformative partnership in 1997, when the company was chosen by Starbucks over dozens of other candidates. The resulting order enabled them to expand into a 20,000-square-foot facility and scale up their capacity for the coffee giant.
By 2010, Sweet Sam’s had grown into a recognized brand, introducing its own product line and refining classic baked goods based on family recipes. Today, the company operates out of a 72,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility with the same craft-focused, no-skimping approach – as Matthew emphasizes, “there is no sparing of expenses on ingredients or quality.”
We may be a large operation now, but we’ve never lost our small business feel.
Looking ahead, Sweet Sam’s is investing in its direct-to-consumer sales and expanding capacity to meet the ever-growing demand for its products. Transparency and innovation remain at the forefront of the bakery’s mission, as the company works to consistently enhance beloved classics while staying true to its family traditions. “We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but this is just the beginning,” Matthew explains. “Our mission is to keep improving, innovating, and creating baked goods that people keep coming back for.”
