Small Business Growth Through Expansion

Michele Tsucalas founded Michele's Granola in 2006 after experimenting in her home kitchen with handmade granola. Michele's Granola debuted at a farmers' market that year where it quickly gained a devoted following. As the company has grown, making the very best, most delicious granola by hand in small batches with quality ingredients is top priority. Today a team of 25 prepares, packages and distributes more than 2,000 pounds of granola daily from a Timonium, Maryland, bakery. The product is carried in more than 500 grocery and natural food retailers across the Mid-Atlantic.

With a start in her home kitchen, Michele's Granola has grown steadily over the course of the last 15 years. During this time, the organization has scaled from a commercial kitchen to a small bakery and a move to their current facility which took place in 2015. Since that time, the organization has continually grown sales, new product lines and added staff to keep up with the demand for granola. The increased production has driven the need for the organization to expand their facility, add additional storage and production capability and increase the production team. In support of this, Michele's engaged the MD MEP, part of the MEP National Network™, team to support the expansion with layout recommendations, engineering drawings and support through the process.

Having worked with Michele to support the move to the current facility, MD MEP and its team of engineers, partners and providers worked closely with the leadership of Michele's Granola to understand and define needs, develop requirements and constraints and turn these into detailed drawings to be used for the buildout and expansion of the new space. For this effort, MD MEP partnered with EFI Engineering to develop, design and deliver a functional layout plan and provided ongoing assistance with the contracting team to support the buildout process. The new space will enable Michele's to support current demand but more importantly support the immediate growth needs to ensure Michele's Granola is available everywhere!