www.HartfordBusiness.com • September 30, 2019 • Hartford Business Journal 3
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Scott Kruger | President, Hartford Baking Co.
By Sean Teehan
steehan@hartfordbusiness.com
I
n his three years working for Moody's Investors
Service, Scott Kruger saw the peak and plunge of
the financial sector. That's what happens when
your career in finance spanned from 2006 to 2009.
As the economy began to recover from the
Great Recession, Kruger chose a completely
different career path, leaving New York for his
hometown of West Hartford, and founding Hart-
ford Baking Co.
The career change wasn't completely out of the
blue, though, because Kruger's family took cook-
ing seriously, making meals and baking sweets
from scratch throughout his childhood, he said.
With a decade under its belt, Hartford Baking
Co.'s 45 employees work out of two storefronts in
West Hartford, with another set to open in Glaston-
bury next year. Moving from an employee role to
that of the ultimate authority was a struggle at first,
Kruger said, but it turned out to be well worth it.
"I was challenged like never before," Kruger
said. "I have no regrets, it's the single best deci-
sion I've ever made."
The career you came from and the career you
migrated to are very different industries. How
did you go about that transition?
The change in industries really wasn't a chal-
lenge. The biggest challenge was moving from an
employee role where I was working as part of a
team to becoming an owner without business part-
ners and needing to make all the decisions myself.
In addition, though the industries are very
different, the fundamentals are still the same:
You need to have people management skills and
make sure your finances are in order. My finance
background has helped us get this far, even when
my lack of management skills created hurdles.
More often than not, entrepreneurs focus only
on industry-specific knowledge and fail because
they don't give the same attention to the funda-
mentals of business management.
How has the restaurant/cafe industry changed
in Greater Hartford since you opened your first
location?
As with the rest of the country, there has been
a huge restaurant boom during the last 10 years.
With the rise of food-focused reality TV and
many people leaving corporate jobs because of
the recession in 2009, the low-barriers to entry
of the food industry and its depiction in popular
culture have made it a super popular industry.
There's a lot more competition for restaurants,
coffee shops and bakeries, but it's great for con-
sumers, who now have more choice than ever.
The more competitive nature of the industry also
means that food quality and service need to be
top notch, so I think that's good for everyone. It
keeps us on our toes.
What was the first hard lesson you learned as a
business owner?
Just because you sign someone's paycheck
doesn't mean they'll do whatever you ask. It's
slightly more complicated!
What role do restaurants play in economic devel-
opment?
Restaurants and hospitality businesses make a
place more livable. Wouldn't you want to live on
the same block as a cool coffee shop or bar that
you could stop at every day? Look at what Story
and Soil and Little River are doing for the stretch
of Capitol Avenue in Hartford's Frog Hollow
neighborhood. Those types of businesses create
a much more appealing neighborhood and func-
tion as community gathering places.
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