How Baker Tilly guided Bakerly’s expansion with strategic site selection

A growing family-owned baked goods company, Bakerly, required capital investment planning for a new production facility to meet the increasing demand for its authentic French recipe products. Bakerly was seeking assistance in identifying the optimal location for future production capacity through a detailed site suitability analysis with a comprehensive supply chain scenario review and help in securing credits and incentives for the project.

Baker Tilly’s site selection and location strategy and incentives advisory teams conducted an extensive supply chain mapping and analysis, creating a dynamic model that considered future sales growth scenarios. This model guided Bakerly to a stage where the production facility was both constructible and financeable from the perspective of internal and external stakeholders. The project was divided into two main phases:

1. Concept and feasibility: This phase concluded with sufficient due diligence for the Bakerly to make an informed “go/no-go” decision on the most suitable locations for expansion. Initial criteria, such as direct flight access, narrowed potential locations across the U.S. Further analysis of supply chain, utility and labor costs at a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) level reduced the options to three cities for consideration.
2. Site identification and incentives: In this phase, collaboration with the engineering team and equipment vendors was facilitated, analyzing several sites within each of the three identified MSAs, eventually focusing on two sites in detail regarding constructability and cost. The Baker Tilly support team assisted in securing land control and provided the necessary details to confidently select a final site that met the project's objectives, timeline and budget. Additionally, Baker Tilly worked with local and state organizations to secure a significant incentives package for the project.

Throughout the project, Baker Tilly ensured careful coordination and collaboration through weekly meetings with key stakeholders, vendors and the engineering team to discuss site-specific considerations such as construction costs, permitting and land control status.

Baker Tilly provided the clarity and insight needed for our client to confidently proceed with funding approval for the production facility. Deliverables included a mapping visual showing geographic reach based on defined flight options and drive times, a dynamic Tableau scenario-based operational costing tool, a summary document of siting criteria with quantitative measures to narrow down site location options further, and a summary document outlining due diligence progress on each site under consideration, including a net present value (NPV) analysis. Baker Tilly assisted in procuring incentives exceeding 10% of project capital costs. The company opened the 135,000-square-foot production facility in March 2024 in San Antonio, Texas.