Crumbs Bake Shop – a cupcake empire valued at $66 million when it went public greater than a decade ago – was quietly bought back by the founders for $300, The Post has learned.
The Big Apple Bakery, credited with sparking the cupcake craze within the early 2000s, built a sequence of 79 stores in eight states but was left for dead in bankruptcy in 2014.
Last 12 months, co-founders Jason and Mia Bauer, who founded Crumbs in 2003 with a single store on Manhattan’s Upper West Side at West seventy fifth Street and Amsterdam Avenue, regained control for $300 — the fee required to purchase an abandoned brand from the Patent Office and US Trademarks.
“The USPTO website reported that the Crumbs trademark was ‘dead, abandoned and unrecoverable,’ Jason Bauer told The Post in an interview.
While the Bauers respectfully disagree, they’ve also decided to reverse the business strategy – namely, by avoiding costly retail expansion. As a substitute, Crumbs cupcakes at the moment are sold online and distributed in supermarkets – around 400 ShopRites, Gristedes, Westside Markets and Fairways – and for about half the worth.
![Jason and Mia Bauer.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000010306424-1.jpg?w=1024)
It’s a special world than in 2003, when the Bauers desired to benefit from what they saw as customer fatigue in large supermarkets offering a drained, mediocre collection of baked goods.
“The neighborhood bakeries disappeared around this time, and we desired to grow to be that local destination again,” Jason said.
Suffice it to say that the world has modified. Crumbs, together with rival cupcake suppliers reminiscent of Magnolia, Sprinkles, Cupcake Nouveau, and Georgetown Cupcake, gained huge market share over the subsequent 20 years.
The Bauers sold half of their interest in Crumbs in 2008 for $10 million to a business angel and further developed the brand.
By 2011, there have been 50 stores, and the Bauers sold their remaining share.
“We were selling 1,000,000 cupcakes a month,” Mia said.
![Jars of cookies.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000010306422-1.jpg?w=1024)
The corporate went public in 2011, briefly gaining a market valuation of $66 million, however the sugar high didn’t last long.
Former Aeropostale CEO Julian Geiger accelerated growth over the subsequent two years, opening around 25 Crumbs stores in shopping malls.
But the huge expansion only accelerated Crumbs’ bankruptcy.
The issue: In line with Jason Bauer, mall shoppers spent less per transaction than typical $20 to $25 purchases in Bauer-run standalone stores.
“I do not feel like talking about Crumbs,” Geiger told The Post when contacted over the phone.
In 2014, Marcus Lemonis, star of CNBC’s “The Profit” reality show, partnered with Fischer Enterprises to purchase Crumbs out of bankruptcy for $6.5 million, but sold his interest in Crumbs a 12 months later at a “significant loss”.
Lemonis’s comment was not immediately available.
He had previously said he was a minority investor and as such was unable to “make the switch”.
![Crumbs Bake Shop exterior.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000010306279-1.jpg?w=717)
“We felt we left it within the hands of the individuals who would grow it,” Jason said. “It was heartbreaking for us to look at our baby close by.”
Now, a box of half a dozen Crumbs in grocery stores costs between $10 and $13, while Crumbs website offers larger cupcakes for $45 for a six-pack.
“Fast to 2023 and now we’ve got the flexibility to speak with our consumers via social media without having to be in a physical store,” Jason said.
![A worker holding a tray for cooking freshly baked cupcakes.](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/NYPICHPDPICT000010306274-1.jpg?w=1024)
The Bauers plan to open a flagship store within the Big Apple in the subsequent few years – and are in talks with licensors for stores within the Middle East and Asia – but are avoiding constructing an actual estate portfolio, they said.
In addition they slimmed down their range from 60 varieties to over a dozen of their hottest flavors, including Chocolate Blackout, Red Velvet, Cookies & Cream, and Cotton Candy, and added cookie jars.