SYRACUSE — Cathy Pemberton expected 2020 to be the best year ever for her seven-year-old homemade baked-cookie business, which is based in Syracuse’s Armory Square area. And the first quarter started out that way for Cathy’s Cookie Kitchen, Inc., until the coronavirus pandemic struck. “It was the best first quarter I’ve ever had and was […]
SYRACUSE — Cathy Pemberton expected 2020 to be the best year ever for her seven-year-old homemade baked-cookie business, which is based in Syracuse’s Armory Square area.
And the first quarter started out that way for Cathy’s Cookie Kitchen, Inc., until the coronavirus pandemic struck.
“It was the best first quarter I’ve ever had and was going to be my best year. All of that came to a halt when Syracuse University (SU) first closed and I stopped receiving orders from SU parents for their kids. That was when the virus became very real, probably around March 16,” Pemberton tells CNYBJ in an email interview.
She then lost all her wholesale accounts, which accounted for up to half of the small business’s revenue. Pemberton says she furloughed her three regular part-time employees, as well as other occasional part-timers.
“I was operating completely on my own right through mid-June, when I brought my baker back on [part-time].”
To help stay afloat, Cathy’s Cookie Kitchen was able to tap a few funding sources. Pemberton says she received a potentially forgivable loan from the Paycheck Protection Program through her bank, KeyBank, which covered payroll for three months.
Pemberton also received a loan from the Syracuse Economic Development Corporation (SEDCO), which allowed her to purchase equipment to grow her business. And, she obtained a $5,000 CenterState CEO stabilization grant, which she used to pay three months of back rent and all of her back utilities’ costs. “It was a lifesaver,” she says.
Cathy’s Cookie Kitchen, which is based in an 826-square-foot space at 266 W. Jefferson St. that doubles as a commercial kitchen and retail storefront, closed only temporarily for two weeks in the first part of April. The business transitioned to call-in orders only and using GrubHub. “I reopened and did a lot of orders for health-care workers and first responders,” she says.
It wasn’t until late June that Pemberton reopened the storefront’s cookie case for walk-in customers.
So how is the business doing now?
“We are doing pretty well. I’m able to cover all of my expenses, including payroll for myself and my employee. Our customers are so happy when they find that we’re still open. It’s a very stressful time to own a business, but it’s also satisfying to be doing well,” Pemberton says.
Still, the financial numbers aren’t pretty, with annual revenue year to date down about 50 percent from last year, when Pemberton was expecting to grow about 35 percent this year.
“I hate to look at [the numbers.] We’re still lacking a good walk-in base — there are still so many downtown employees working from home,” she says. “We lost the downtown farmer’s market business this season, which has been very strong for us and we lost the income from the State Fair, which was considerable, even though I wasn’t a full-time vendor. I’ve lost my TasteNY market from the Kirkwood welcome center on I-81. I also lost revenue from weddings, showers, and graduation parties. I do expect it to grow each month as we head to the end of the year though.”
Pemberton is still operating her store with limited hours, but expects to gradually expand them this fall as more people return to downtown.
She remains the only full-time employee in the business and she employs the one part-time baker.
“I’m doing all of the other jobs other employees were doing, and she [the part-timer] is doing great baking and packaging the orders, and closing the shop up on Wednesdays when I deliver our weekly wholesale order to Grindstone Farm. I’m walking a very fine line of growing the business back but keeping it at a manageable level so that I don’t increase my expenses too much,” Pemberton says.
The business owner says she remains committed to staying downtown at her present location. Her lease at 266 W. Jefferson St. runs through 2021.
“This is a difficult time that will pass and I am committed to being a part of the downtown community,” she says.
Pemberton remains optimistic about downtown’s future, “but I think it’s going to take a lot of hard work, a lot of flexibility and a willingness to develop new markets or do business differently than we may have done in the past. We need to be more creative to reach our customers and continue to provide the best products and services that we can provide. People still want to be able to be out and shop and dine, but it’s a matter of doing it safety and intelligently. I really hope we don’t have to take any steps backward.”
Cathy’s Cookie Kitchen makes and sells a variety of cookies, utilizing organic and natural ingredients. Pemberton started the business in 2013, operating it from her home in Camillus and later at a commissary (commercial kitchen) at a local church, before opening the location in Armory Square.