The art of scaling dough: Lessons from Hero Doughnuts’ expansion

Growing your restaurant is a thrilling challenge, but it also means new pressures.

When you open location number 5, 35 or 135, what keeps you up at night is the big question of a growing business: How do we continue delivering what made people fall in love with us in the first place, but more? A lot more.

Delivering more product with the same quality that got you here is the name of the game.

We met Hero Doughnuts in the middle of their story. They had won the hearts and palates of Birmingham, Alabama, and started to expand. Customer feedback pointed to a tough problem: They struggled with the consistency of their brioche dough (the centerpiece of the entire restaurant concept) as they grew their sales across multiple locations.

Hero’s journey

When Hero Doughnuts Co-owner and Culinary Director Wil Drake reached out to Companion, he’d already tried a few options. He’d looked into building his own commissary kitchen to make the dough, but ultimately determined it would be too expensive. Then he tried reaching out to multiple other out-of-town bakeries for help with his bread dough production, but that hadn’t worked either.

“There are so many variables, so many nuances. Maybe they used a different flour or a different butter and different eggs.” The other bakeries hadn’t cracked the Hero code. “They would make it, freeze it, send it to us, and it would just be, like, dead dough,” Drake said.

Then Hero Doughnuts got in touch with Companion.

Scaling without sacrificing quality

Hero didn’t build their reputation on a market-standard dough. “The bread is the backbone of Hero,” says Drake. Their dough is prepared in a special three-day process, where simple, high-quality ingredients and time are the most essential elements. So, creating a bakery partnership to scale their bread program required a lot of care.

“We probably did about seven or eight different trials,” Drake said. “They weren’t like car salesmen about it, like, pushy and weird. They said, ‘if you have the time, we’ll spend a whole year or two years until we get it right with y’all.’” But it didn’t take two years. After a few short months, Hero Doughnuts and Companion Baking had their formula and process dialed in.

Step 1: The dough arrives

The dough arrives unbaked in a frozen ball. According to Drake, “When the ball arrives, we slack it out or thaw it out slowly in the fridge, and the yeast just starts coming back to life.”

That frozen ball format isn’t just for shipping; it’s also an efficiency upgrade. Drake shifted Hero’s donut-making process from cutting shapes out of rolled dough, which left scraps, to forming them from pre-portioned balls. “We were already making them to make our buns. So, you just take a ball, press a hole in it, and gently stretch it into a ring shape. It comes out in this perfect little inner tube donut without wasting any dough,” he says.

Step 2: Shape and bake

The same dough balls are used for buns, fritters, and more, reducing waste and simplifying training across all locations. “Every product that we make in-house is from this ball, even the fritters. All the bread, the buns that our sandwiches are on, and all the donuts are made from the same dough,” says Drake. “It’s a brioche-style dough.” Shaped in-house by the Hero team and baked on-site, the dough is consistent, high-quality, and delicious in every form.

Skilled hands deliver consistent results

When baking great dough, you must remember that yeasted dough is a living organism. Tight control of mixing, fermenting, proving and baking conditions can’t guarantee that yeast behaves the exact same way in every case.

At Companion, it’s our people who make our products great. Come to our bakery, and you’ll see plenty of modern technology. But always, at every step in the process, we keep skilled bakers making critical decisions. So, your dough hits the oven when it’s good and ready, not just when a timer goes off.

To Drake, the people are as important as their product. “The dough is consistent, and then, they’re just good people. I always want to be surrounded by good people, whether it’s someone I hire or partner with. We partner with Companion, and they’re just good people.”

That’s the difference between mass production and meaningful craftsmanship.

A great product every time

Because every product on the menu uses the same brioche dough, Hero can’t afford interruptions. Companion’s systems and relationships ensure a steady supply to every store, so Drake and his team can focus entirely on shaping, baking, and delighting customers — not worrying about shortages. In the last 2 years and counting, we have maintained a 99.5% fulfillment rate.

When there’s a problem, we solve it. “They really care about what they do and also their relationships with their clients,” says Drake. “It just really felt like we were talking to people we’d already known for a while, and they really understood what we were trying to accomplish.”

“I get so giddy thinking about it. The fact that we don’t have to make this dough anymore, and the fact that it’s consistent, and then, you know, they’re just good people… It’s been such a little treat that I didn’t even think would ever happen.”
– Wil Drake, Co-owner and Culinary Director, Hero Doughnuts

Let’s talk about your bread program

Let’s start a conversation about your bread, pastries, cookie pucks or other bakery program. Whether you’re looking for consistency, creativity or a partner to help you scale — we’re ready to help you tell your story.

Contact our Bread Development Team today and start your bread evolution.