Published June 6, 2024
By Lauren Lawley Head – Contributor to Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal
Americans love doughnuts — both kids and adults alike. However, not everyone can partake of the sweet treats or any baked goods containing flour made from wheat.
Molly Miller is out to make those goodies available to everyone. With the tagline “It’s a gluten-free-for-all,” Miller’s Minneapolis-based business, Sift Gluten Free, is an inclusive bakery that serves delicious birthday cakes and doughnuts for everyone.
In fact, take your pick of doughnuts, bars, muffins, cinnamon rolls, cookies, cupcakes, scones bread and even waffles and pretzels — all items are 100% gluten-free, peanut-free and mostly dairy-free.
While Miller has loved to bake since she was a child, she has Crohn’s disease. Through all the years of dealing with doctors, no one ever mentioned the connection between what she ate and how she felt.
“Almost 15 years ago, I went gluten-free,” she said. “Within just a few days, I noticed such a massive difference with body inflammation and my brain was clear. I didn’t even realize I’d had foggy headaches.”
At that time, Miller had a full-time job as a copywriter. Once she decided to go gluten-free, she began experimenting with items she didn’t want to give up, such as doughnuts, chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. She shared her treats with a friend who had been diagnosed with celiac disease.
“My friend said she’d never eaten anything like this since going gluten-free and had forgotten how good it can taste,” Miller said.
After selling select baked goods at local farmers’ markets in 2013, Miller found herself swamped with orders. One customer would drive up from Iowa with a cooler and buy her entire inventory of specific items when the farmers’ market opened. She soon added wholesale accounts at local coffee shops.
Miller relocated her operations to a commercial kitchen one day a week and then moved to a shared commercial kitchen and still couldn’t keep up with the demand.
“I had to make a decision that I was either going to stay a writer and bake part-time, or I was all in,” Miller said. “I decided to go all in and give it a year.”
In 2017, Miller found a building for her bakery in south Minneapolis. She bought it with the help of Highland Bank, a Small Business Administration (SBA) Preferred Lender. Highland provided Miller with a mix of SBA loans (SBA 504 and SBA 7(a)) and a low-interest loan from the Community Planning and Economic Department (CPED) of Minneapolis, said Angie Trocke, Vice President, Commercial Banker, Highland Bank.
“We were able to provide Molly with financing to get her business open and operating,” Trocke said. “We gave her additional financing for expansion, as well as PPP loans during COVID-19.”
The expansion financing was used to build a second bakery space by converting a 700-square-foot rental unit within Miller’s building, which she had been leasing to a tenant.
“Angie helped me figure out the financing. We now have a walk-in cooler and freezer and a dedicated area to decorate cakes,” Miller said. “We also have a huge roll-in rack oven.”
Trocke is right by Miller’s side as she plans for the future.
“Angie and I have had initial conversations about opening another location, hopefully within the next two years,” Miller said. “I’m grateful to have a local bank with a local contact. I have more of a personal relationship with Angie. It was a nice security blanket during COVID.”
Highland has built a regional reputation as a leading provider with the SBA; a status achieved by just a handful of banks in the metro area. Preferred SBA Lenders have multiple advantages to pursuing financing, including the ability to approve in-house loan requests, which can result in faster approval times and shortened processing times.
Miller’s business continues to grow. She currently employs 18 to 22 people as baristas and bakers. Sift Gluten Free’s best-selling product, though, continues to be the doughnuts. Sift sold 86,654 of them in 2023, 29,340 from its storefront location and 57,314 through wholesale partners.
“It’s such a joy to provide baked goods for people, especially kids, who haven’t ever had a birthday cake or a doughnut,” Miller said.
Since 2017, the Sift Gluten Free storefront has been proud to be a dedicated gluten-free bakery in south Minneapolis. Some of our favorite baked goods include cinnamon rolls, donuts, cupcakes and bread, but our menu doesn’t stop there. It’s a Gluten-Free-For-All.
