The modern bakery counter display, a solution for energy and waste optimization.

Historically bakeries always had a great display of pastries, bread and treats to attract customers.
With the advancement in refrigeration technology the counter displays became more suitable for food conservation, and they allowed new kinds of pastries to be displayed while being kept at 4 - 8º, ready for consumption.

In a complete bakery you may find the following sections:

• Bread at room temperature
• Viennoiseries (croissants, pain au chocolat etc) at room temperature
• Cakes refrigerated at 4º
• Iced cakes refrigerated at -18º
• Mignon or Petit fours refrigerated at 4º
• Chocolates refrigerated at 16-18º

Each one of these products require a dedicated display, with eventually controlled temperature. The best displays also allow for multiple zones temperature plus humidity control.

A medium-low quality 150cm display counter costs between 1000€ and 4000€.
The moment you start to need something longer, or with corners, the prices go up, and for a 200cm good quality display you can easily spend 10-15000€ euros, with an electricity consumption of 1,2-1,8 KW/h.

A good quality display filled up with pastries looks incredible but there are the following problems:

• You need to daily clean glasses and surfaces
• You need to daily transfer in and out products because the display counter is never as efficient as a fridge, so pastries eventually dry out faster
• The refrigeration engine may fail
• It can’t be easily changed if you want to refresh the look of your venue after some years
• It consumes electricity
• It looks bad when it is empty at the end of the day, seen that you sold out most of your products, especially if you have a very long one
• Things can fall and spill when handling pastries

Despite these disadvantages, until a few years ago every bakery had a traditional display as mentioned above.
Recently a new trend has emerged, the “minimal table display”.
This new approach relies on a table made of wood, marble or any other material and samples of products placed individually with labels and prices.

This new display method has the following advantages:

• Almost no energy consumption, just lighting is needed
• Easy cleaning
• Almost no moving of pastries, seen that most of the desserts in display have been designed to stay well in open air or with a crystal dome on top, and the pastries on the table will not be served to the customer
• Neat look where pastries can be added or removed depending on availability
• Pastries have a better shelf life seen that they are kept in proper fridges in closed containers to keep their humidity
• The table is easy to replace, or fix, if a corner brakes or a style change is needed
• This style is open for creativity and doesn’t void the warranty, like in a traditional display, where often it is forbidden to screw/stick ads or panels to the side of the appliance

In Bakery de Stefano we chose this new look, and we added some wheels to the display table, so it can be easily moved when new ingredients arrive, especially flour and chocolate bags.

Customers appreciate the minimal table display and it gives the opportunity to explain each pastry or product individually, seeing that each dessert stands on its own and is clearly visible from different angles.
In our case we had to protect our products with crystal domes because they might attract insects, but in colder climates it is also possible to avoid covering the product.

Here you have the pros of this new display method, if you want to see it in person you can come to our bakery in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria!

Cheers

Flavio de Stefano