LONDON, ONT. -- Bosco and Roxy's in London has been known for making unique, specialty dog cookies for the past 10 years, but they're branching out.
“Dogs are part of our family so we make cookies to celebrate birthdays and Christmas and all kinds of special holidays,” says co-owner Jaymie Crook. “We distribute throughout the U.S. and Canada and all types of large big-box retailers as well.”
But in recent weeks due to the fallout of COVID-19, production started to drop. That’s when the company decided to switch gears in their production facility.
“We could see the decline in the grocery stores and the need for food out there and it seemed like a big waste not to have our bakery make human foods for people,' says co-owner Michelle Crook.
That is exactly what the husband and wife team decided to do. Instead of focusing fully on baking dog cookies, they turned their efforts into baking breads and other baked goods for purchase.
“You can order anything from bread, cookies and muffins to pizzas, meat pies, gourmet mac and cheese,” says Michelle. “We even have some dips and we also offer the famous Dutch Bakery [products] as well from St. Thomas.”
The team at Bosco and Roxy's make the breads, muffins and cookies. The other items available are from other small businesses in the community that have teamed up together to sell their products.
“They are all very interested in this avenue and because it helps local businesses it’s something we should all think about,” says Michelle.
Customers can place their order online at www.driveupbakery.com and then they can either pick up their purchase outside of the Bosco and Roxy's facility, or staff will even deliver the food to their door.
“We are doing what we can here to keep our distance and make things safe and still keep our people working and earning a paycheque and that seems to be working,” says Jaymie.
Along with making human food, they are still producing some dog cookies. When it comes to the human baked goods, production has doubled each day.
Jaymie says the hopes are to keep that momentum going as long as there is a need for it, “Entrepreneurs are looking at what their infrastructure is and adapting to what the world needs right now and I think we are seeing lots of examples of that.”
