From fresh pastries to fire protection: How a family business elevates fire safety
Key Takeaways:
- Prioritizing fire safety boosts a workforce’s emergency readiness by ensuring equipment is properly maintained and reliable.
- Simplifying daily responsibilities allows more time to build customer and employee rapport.
- Reducing the number of vendors improves business efficiency through direct communication and consistent service.
Long before the sun rises over Greater Cincinnati, Wyoming Pastry Shop is cooking up deliciousness. Dough is rising, ovens are firing and a small but mighty team is hard at work to meet the local morning rush. The first crew gets in between midnight and 1 a.m. They prep everything, bake breads and bagels, and fry up 1,000 to 1,500 donuts. By 6 a.m., the cases are full, and the doors are ready to open.
Owned by husband-and-wife team Catie and Justin Bancroft, Wyoming Pastry Shop is more than a neighborhood favorite — it’s a small business rooted in the community since 1934. Today, the growing shop is led by two busy parents and entrepreneurs balancing business, careers and family as new owners. With Cintas supporting their operations, the Bancrofts have found a dependable partner helping simplify their day-to-day responsibilities, so they can focus on what matters: workers, customers and home life.
Balancing Business and Responsibilities
Catie has a full-time job when she’s not managing the shop, and Justin, a former Cincinnati firefighter, carries out essential pastry-shop duties. And together, the couple is raising three young children. Finding time for family, while maintaining the many demands of the bakery, has been one of their biggest challenges.
Because of Justin’s background, he and Catie have a unique perspective on employee safety, and fire protection is an important, behind-the-scenes aspect of running Wyoming Pastry Shop. They recognize that keeping their team, customers and facility safe is essential to their continued success.
Catie and Justin Bancroft at a fire station
“Fire protection is high priority for us. As someone who comes from the military and fire background, having the proper equipment in line, just in case we do have an emergency, knowing that everything’s working, from extinguishers to our Ansul kitchen suppression system, means we can help keep everybody safe,” Justin stated.
Training their staff was another concern. “Having the staff trained so they can use fire extinguishers is also a high priority for us,” he added.
With safety matters always present, the couple also manages the shop billing, finances, deliveries, hiring and cleaning. They coordinate fire inspections and keep up with fire safety compliance. Those responsibilities, plus the pressures of arranging first aid supplies, apron and mat cleaning, and facility services with multiple vendors, became exhausting.
One Partner. Total Support.
That’s when the Bancrofts turned to Cintas to consolidate services and simplify operations across the entire shop.
“We use Cintas for our first aid medicine cabinet. We use them for all of our cleaning supplies, our aprons, our rags for when we're baking and making a mess in the back, our mats that we have in the front of our store, and then we also use them for our fire protection,” Catie commented.
With one point of contact and one consistent schedule, the pastry shop is visited by familiar service representatives who understand their business.
She added, “What I really like is that I’m not seeing a new face every single day. It’s the same people that are delivering our aprons. It’s the same people that are servicing our fire. It’s also the same person that every month is coming in to check our first aid cabinet to make sure everything is up to date.”
Cintas also delivers something even more valuable, time, which has made a made a meaningful difference for the Bancrofts.
“Working with Cintas has been amazing. A huge time saver,” Catie shared. “Because of our working partnership with them, it has given me the ability to get more time back in my day, both with my family and focusing on the success of my business.”
Watch the Story Here
Go behind the scenes at Wyoming Pastry Shop, a family-owned bakery with nearly a century of history. But with high-volume baking comes real risk - and that’s where fire protection becomes critical.
Moving Forward with Confidence
With Cintas as a dedicated partner, Wyoming Pastry Shop ownership is not just keeping up — they’re moving forward with confidence, knowing their business is safer and their people are protected.
Justin affirmed his continued satisfaction, “If anybody’s considering Cintas for their fire protection, I would absolutely recommend them.”
For more information about Cintas Fire Protection services, visit www.cintas.com/fire.
