In addition to scores of corporate-side workers and all employees at its now-shuttered retail locations, 75 shift bakers at Melita Bakery in the Bronx lost their jobs after Crumbs abruptly shut down last month. The remnants of the once-mighty cupcake chain are now being retooled into some kind of viable frosting strategy, and while partner Emanuel Darmanin says his bakery, which partnered with Crumbs for 11 years, says he’s ready to give it another shot, right now things look grim. Just before the filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation, standing orders for 225,000 cupcakes per week suddenly dropped 100,000, and beyond the workforce cuts, Melita had to renegotiate terms with suppliers. Then there were also the actual crumbs that Crumbs left behind in the form of surplus batter, which had to be converted into something resembling a fleet of zombie cupcakes prior to disposal. “We have to bake them to throw them away,” says Darmanin. [WSJ, Related]
