A south suburban bakery that specializes in made-from-scratch cookies has seen its business partly recover several months into the pandemic.
Marcus J. Freeman said his Signature Sweets Factory in South Holland drew customers from as far away from Wisconsin for his baking creations, including rich butter cookies made with Irish butter and real vanilla.
Business was growing steadily, he said, until the pandemic forced him to stop selling baked goods from his store.
"At the start of the pandemic, we probably took a cut of at least about 80 percent," he said.
Signature Sweets Factory was already selling cookies in about two dozen Chicago-area grocery stores. Freeman says he was able to double that number during the pandemic, which nearly made up for the lost business.
"Things are back up maybe up to 85 or 90 percent of what they were before the pandemic," he said.
Now, his cookies are being sold at about 40 Jewel stores. He said an executive tells him the product could soon be in all locations.
Despite the rapid growth of business, Freeman said, he’ll never forget what makes his cookies so popular:
"Focus on quality over profits.”
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