Meet The Owners: Frederick's Pastries

has a long history of perfection and has no intention of bringing customers anything less than the best.

Gloria and Frederick Lozier started their bakery out of their garage in Nashua in 1980, and it quickly grew through its success and soon moved to Amherst. It settled in its current location in 1989 and has since opened up stores in Bedford and North Andover.

The specialty bakery offers unique cakes for any occasion and a wide variety of decadent, carefully handcrafted pastries.

Susan Lozier Robert started working at the family businesses when she was young and learned every aspect of the trade. She took over the family business eight years ago and has been running it since.

We talked to Susan about Frederick’s mission of excellence and their dedication to customer satisfaction.

Patch: What makes your business special?
Susan: What defines us is we are 100 percent for perfection. We are not an everyday bakery and we want to be more intimate with customers and get to know them. We make cakes that represent them and we really work hard and take the time to listen to our customers. If we are making one for a Sweet 16, we want to know what that girl likes because that cakes it going to be the center of attention. It is really kind of cool getting to know people like that. Finally, we are an all-scratch bakery and with recipes that have been around for years and we have no intention of changing a good thing.

Patch: What are the challenges of running your specialty bakery?
Susan: I think I have created my own challenges by opening two more stores, but they are good challenges. Ingredients are changing as businesses come and go and it is up to me to catch those things. We do all the baking here in Amherst and ship to the other two locations, which means I have to keep on quality and consistency. I also have to understand and work with people to keep everything smooth and going.

Patch: What is the culture like at your business?
Susan: It is kind of like an extended family here. We have had some people working here for 12-15 years and we have a great retention of employees. It is really kind of neat that they become really good friends and hang out. We really try hard to recruit and hire people that fit that bill here. We also have classes, kind of like our own university, to make sure everybody is on the same level and refreshes their knowledge.

Patch: Do you like busy days?
Susan: I like the stress and I believe that the busier you are, the better you are and the better the product is. We work better together as a team and are all excited during holidays and graduation season. It is fun to have that last-minute feeling of putting it all together. I am 100 percent immersed and think that there has to be passion behind success. I hate January and February because I don’t like it when it is slow, it is like watching paint dry. Of course we spend that time creating new recipes, like our Purple Velvet Whoopie Pies that we are debuting this year.

Patch: What is your favorite dessert at Frederick’s?
Susan: The Purple Velvet Cupcake because it is awesome. I don’t like red velvet cake and I never have. I decided to create my own and filled it with cream cheese and frosted butter cream and made it purple, my favorite color. It is a dense cake and the combination is just perfect. I give huge kudos to the bakers for helping me to come up with that one.

Patch: What does the future hold for Frederick’s Pastries?
Susan: I am not interested in changing our formulas and my goal is to keep all the favorites the same. We are always looking for new products and trends, but without messing with the classics. I’d like to open up new stores to allow new talent and new ideas to form, but I don’t want to grow too fast. Each cake has to have the respect and dedication it deserves and I never want it to be a numbers game. I want it to be a work of art. We are never going to open up 38,000 Frederick’s locations because we are not a chain. These stores are ours and we are together.

Visit their website at www.pastry.net.