A few years ago, the gourmet food truck trend hit Los Angeles, and restaurants, bakeries, and entrepreneurs began selling an array of mobile food options that far surpassed the offerings of traditional taco trucks. Among the early adopters, Charles and Candace Nelson, founders of the high-end cupcake bakery chain Sprinkles Cupcakes, purchased and customized a 2007 Sprinter van that not only had the feel of their unique bakery but allowed them to portray an exterior fit for their gourmet treats.
According to Charles Nelson, the bakery was using plain trucks for delivery and mobile sales at television and movie studios in the Los Angeles area. "We said, wouldn't it be great if we had something that both felt like Sprinkles, but you pulled in, opened it up, and you were ready to go?" Nelson said.
Delivering Cupcakes in Style
The Nelsons purchased the Dodge-branded Sprinter and almost immediately converted to Mercedes badging. They chose the Sprinter because the van met their bakery's needs. Nelson cited interior standing room (up to 76.4 inches), large cargo capacity (up to 547 cu. ft.), high fuel efficiency (averaging 22 mpg), clean diesel engine (3.0L BlueTEC V-6 diesel with diesel exhaust fluid [DEF] system), and low maintenance costs in comparison to the bakery's other vans.
Working with Sprinkles store architect, designer Andrea Lenardin, and the California-based luxury automotive restyling center West Coast Customs, they transformed the Sprinter into the "Sprinklesmobile." The chocolate-brown bakery-on-wheels rolled out in January 2008, with a capacity of 1,500 cupcakes that can be loaded in trays in the back and retrieved from the front. The van features angled trays that are set up exactly as they are in the store, wheels designed with the signature "modern dots" that top their cupcakes, and a brown awning that prevents cupcakes from melting on sunny days, Nelson explained.
According to Nelson, the vehicle investment was well worth it. "It's gotten a lot of notoriety in every market we've been in," he said. "We've realized [the return on investment] probably in the first year, just in the marketing value."
Nelson said the bakery took delivery of its second Mercedes-Benz Sprinter van in November 2010, and he and his wife are working on converting the bakery's four other vans for use in their nationwide chain this year. The other vans will have the same design but will be customized for their specific applications. He estimated the vans run 20,000-25,000 miles annually.
The expanding popularity of food trucks can be seen with a show on the Food Network, and more businesses have started up with services that range from pet grooming to mobile optical practices. As for Sprinkles, the Nelsons are happy with their choice of the Mercedes-Benz Sprinter, which allows them to expand their branding and reflect the bakery's high-end image. "We wanted to be the Louis Vuitton of cupcakes," Nelson said. "The Mercedes brand was important to us."
