A Hole Different World: Opie's Donut Shop

Owner: Jeff Rosetta

Founded: 1994

Address: 141-C Industrial Park

Drive, Hollister, MO 65672

Phone: (417) 335-2624

E-mail: opies_donuts@yahoo.com

Services/Products: Wholesale bakery and pastry delivery

2006 Revenues: $247,000

Employees: 4

When Jeff Rosetta decided to start his own business after teaching history for 10 years in Kansas City, he narrowed his decision to either running a restaurant or making doughnuts. The doughnuts won.

“It came down between this and a barbecue franchise in St. Louis,” Rosetta says. “I chose (Opie’s Donut Shop) because it wasn’t as much of a gamble for me (being) inexperienced. I was looking for a business that was already established, had good clients and the availability to grow. Opie’s Donut Shop in Branson fit all those criteria.”

Rosetta is the fourth owner of Opie’s Donut Shop, which first opened in 1994 and is located in Hollister’s industrial park. He purchased the wholesale bakery under JPR International Inc. in November from Chris Quinby, an owner for three years. Rosetta says he found the business for sale online through Business Brokers Unlimited in Springfield.

“It was a six-month process from beginning to end,” Rosetta says. “I closed this (the sale) during the first week of November so I was able to train during the busy season and then recover and regroup during the slower season in January and February.”

A million doughnuts

Opie’s Donut Shop provides continental breakfasts to about 50 motels, hotels and resorts in the Branson area.

“In the summer, we will do as many as 900-dozen doughnuts (a night), and for the holidays, up over 1,000-dozen doughnuts (a night),” Rosetta says. “Right now, we are doing around 300- to 600-dozen doughnuts (a night).”

Last year, the bakery sold 123,500-dozen doughnuts, or nearly 1.5 million doughnuts, for gross sales of nearly $247,000.

Opie’s Donut Shop offers six varieties of cake doughnuts, three of which Rosetta introduced once he took over the business. The bakery also sells glazed doughnuts, croissants, strudels, cookies and apple fritters.

“This is a complete mom-and-pop operation. Everything is made by hand,” Rosetta says.

Kandice Dodge orders 12-dozen doughnuts a day as a manager at Stormy Point Village, one of the bakery’s longtime clients.

“It’s been five years,” she says of the business relationship. “They are great. They bring my doughnuts before I get there.”

Pam Green, breakfast manager for Ramada Inn Resort and Conference Center and two Quality Inn properties in Branson, also likes the convenience. She orders 15-dozen to 30-dozen doughnuts a day for guests in 600 rooms, depending on the season.

“They’re always fresh and attractive,” Green says of the pastries. “It’s nice to have something we don’t have to make ourselves.”

Rosetta says the motels call in orders by 7:30 p.m. each day. His employees already have started the baking process by 5 p.m. or earlier, relying on an estimate of how many baked goods the motels will need.

Between 11 p.m. and midnight, the doughnuts are loaded onto a delivery truck, and deliveries are made before 4 a.m. On the busiest nights of the season, it takes two employees to run the route, Rosetta says.

Retail and hiring interests

Rosetta has four employees and plans to hire two more seasonal employees for June through December.

During his six months in business, Rosetta says, “I’ve tried to keep things as consistent as possible. For the main production, we haven’t changed a lot. One of my goals is to branch out into retail, but I wanted to get a year under my belt before going out.”

He says he would like to open a kiosk in downtown Branson or at the Branson Landing to sell doughnuts to tourists.

Rosetta says his shift from middle-school teacher to first-time business owner is going well.

“I had a baptism by fire, so to speak. (The business) is my family now,” he says. “It’s 100 percent different. Both jobs have their obstacles and challenges. I’m enjoying the difference.”

Who’s Opie?

Opie’s Donut Shop founder Nathan Atchison’s red hair brought about the nickname Opie after Opie Taylor of “The Andy Griffith Show.” Atchison’s father, Johnny, is still an employee of the bakery.

Time to Make the Doughnuts

Ingredients used on an average night to make 400-dozen doughnuts:

200 pounds of vanilla cake doughnut mix

60 pounds of flavored cake doughnut mix

140 pounds of raised doughnut mix

30 pounds of doughnut icing

60 pounds of powdered sugar

1 pound of yeast

30 liquid pounds of vegetable oil