Courtesy Buck County Biscotti
By Christine Graf
Bucks County Biscotti, a family-owned biscotti bakery, is moving forward with plans to relocate its Pennsylvania bakery to the Airport Industrial Park in Kingsbury.
The company was founded in 1993 by husband and wife Karen and Craig Silbert. Their son, Riley, joined the family business after working for a startup company in New York City.
“I joined about two years ago to help them grow and to eventually take over the business,” he said.
The decision to relocate the bakery occurred after the company maxed out on its production capabilities at their Hilltown Township, Pa., facility. The Queensbury area was chosen because that is where Karen and Craig plan to eventually retire. The couple purchased property in Queensbury and will be building a house there.
Bucks County Biscotti had humble beginnings, and Karen’s homemade biscotti was originally sold at farmer’s markets. It was a weekend endeavor. After perfecting her recipe and garnering a local following, she and her husband began selling the products wholesale to coffee shops and cafes.
The business moved its operation from the couple’s kitchen, to extending and converting their home into a fully registered and certified production bakery. The company now has an online store and ships gift boxes nationwide to consumers.
“My dad originally hand delivered from Washington, D.C., to New York,” said Siebert. “When the pandemic hit, we transitioned almost everything to shipping. In conjunction with that, we opened wholesale accounts throughout the country. We are now shipping nationwide to both retail online customers and our wholesale accounts.”
The company is in the process of purchasing land in the Airport Industrial Park. The tentative purchase price for the three-acre property is $41,000. According to public filings, the project will be funded by $915,000 in bank financing and $106,000 in equity.
Both the Warren and Washington County Industrial Development Agency and The Warren County Economic Development Corp. have been working with Siebert on his plans for the new bakery.
“They have been incredibly helpful in the whole process—acquisition of the land as well as the incentives provided by the town to help bring our business there,” he said. “I expect things to go smoothly, and we are in the late stages of finalizing everything with contractors for the development. That should be moving along very shortly.”
The company plans to build a 5,000-square-foot bakery on the property. Although the Sieberts are currently the bakery’s only employees, the company plans on hiring between four and seven people over the course of the next three to four years. The new bakery will allow the company to increase production in order to meet the needs of its growing nationwide customer base.
“We are hopefully planning on breaking ground in late winter/early spring 2022. The entire development of the facility will probably take between five and six months,” said Siebert. “We are excited about the opportunity to start building the business to the next level.”
The company website is buckscountybiscotti.com.