Grand Traverse Pie Company Expands Their Reach Into Hundreds of New Retailers Across the Midwest and Beyond
Grand Traverse Pie Company opened their doors in July of 1996 and has spent the last 29 years serving up award winning pies in their many Pie Shops and to customers nationwide through their robust online shipping program. Another key component of their legacy has been to offer these same pies in grocery stores in the communities near their pie shops. Now, in addition to those outlets they have formed distribution relationships with partners including Lipari Foods, Spartan Nash, Gordon Food Service, and Jewel Osco expanding their reach across their partners’ networks into over 15 states from New York to Florida and beyond.
“Through the creative innovations and hard work of our team paired with the support of our distributors and retailers, we now have the capability to sell our pies well beyond our previous reach. Our novel ‘Thaw and Sell’ pie program allows us to offer fresh, ready-to-eat pies across the nation. This creates a huge opportunity to continue the growth of our brand,” said Mike Busley, Co-Founder of Grand Traverse Pie Company.
Grand Traverse Pie is doing this while remaining steadfast to their values of making their pies one at a time, by hand, and slow baking them to achieve maximum flavor and texture. “We will always make our pies the same way we have for the last 29 years. We hand portion each pie using raw fruit, no gels, slow baking, while using cherries, apples, and blueberries from our wonderful Michigan growers and processors,” said Busley.
Each of the 11 Grand Traverse Pie retail locations continue to make pies this way every day, and now the bake team in their self-titled ‘GT House of Pie’ facility in Traverse City, Michigan makes the pies the very same way for greater distribution.
Their distribution and retail partners have high praise for the program. James Farber, VP of Category Management at Lipari Foods, praises the expanded partnership by saying, “As a Michigan based company, Lipari Foods is extremely grateful for our partnership with the Grand Traverse Pie Company. Our retail partners across the country are proud to carry such high quality products in their Bakery departments”.
Retail partner Sam Oleson, Co-owner and Marketing Director of Michigan based Oleson’s Foods Stores agrees, noting that Grand Traverse Pie Company pies have been a standout addition, “We are proud to partner with Grand Traverse Pie to bring our customers variety, excellence, and a shared love of great pie. It’s a partnership built on trust, tradition, and mutual respect”.
Key Details of ‘Growing the Pie’:
- Currently, Grand Traverse Pie Company pies are available in over 500 retail locations across 10 states
- By the fourth quarter of 2025, they will be in over 800 locations across 15 states
- A major Midwest retail food chain has ordered over 20,000 pies to be offered in their 100 plus locations for the two weeks surrounding 4th of July of this year
- They have multiyear relationships with several key Michigan partners:
– Smeltzer’s Orchard Company, Frankfort, MI – processor
– Sayler Farms, Williamsburg, MI – cherry farm
– Amos Orchards, Williamsburg, MI – apple farm
– Tru Blue Farms, Grand Junction, MI – blueberry farm and processor
– King Milling Company, Lowell, MI – flour
– Pioneer Sugar, Bay City, MI – sugar
– Michigan State University Product Development Center, East Lansing, MI – strategic guidance