Spot Bagel Bakery Sells Remaining Two Retail Stores -- Company To Concentrate Its Efforts On Wholesale Operation

Faced with mounting competition, Spot Bagel Bakery announced that it has sold its two remaining retail stores to Breugger's Bagels of Western Washington, the holding company that owns the Washington and Oregon franchises of the nation's largest and fastest-growing bagel company.

The sale, announced today, will clear the way for Spot to concentrate its efforts on its wholesale business.

The move was expected. Although Spot began as a retailer in 1990, about 90 percent of its sales today are from the wholesale side of its business. Spot delivers to 295 retail locations, including various QFC, Albertson's, Larry's Markets and Safeway stores from Lakewood to Everett.

"We opened in Wallingford in April 1990 as a retail unit, and at that point we were just one of five bagel stores in the area," said Dana Jones, president and co-founder of Spot. "Today, if you count between Everett and Tacoma, there are more than 30.

"We found that our expertise was in wholesale," Jones said, adding that the wholesale side of her business is healthy.

The company had a third location on the Pike Street level of the Newmark Center, but it closed that store Jan. 1.

The Spot stores in Wallingford and on Queen Anne Hill will be converted to Bruegger's stores shortly. Bruegger's, based in Burlington, Vt., has 340 stores nationwide and now 15 stores in the greater Seattle area.

Jay Wagnon, president of Bruegger's Bagels of Western Washington, said the holding company plans to open five more stores in the area by year's end, including bakeries in Madison Park and Kirkland. The company plans to open an additional 35 outlets in the region in the next three years.