What Stella's Cafe & Bakery does

Stella's Cafe & Bakery is a privately held, founder-owned multi-location café and bakery operator headquartered in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Founded in December 1999 at 166 Osborne Street by Tore, Lehla, Tomas, and Anneen, the company consolidated ownership in 2005 when Tore and Lehla Sohlberg bought out the other founders and have since directed the business. Stella's operates 11 retail locations spread across Winnipeg's commercial corridors—including St. James, McIvor, Corydon (two sites), Grant, Pembina, Plug In, au CCFM, the EQ3 location, and the Winnipeg Airport (YWG) unit—offering dine-in, take-out, and delivery service via a Skip The Dishes integration.

The company's product offering integrates three revenue streams: full-service café dining (breakfast all day plus lunch and dinner menus with items priced from $10.95 to $24.95), an artisan bakery (sourdoughs, pastries, croissants, cakes, muffins, and seasonal items), and a structured catering menu for corporate and private events (tray pricing starting at $49, per-person breakfast at $16.95, and 8-serving entrées priced from $129 to $179). Production is centralized through a 7,500-square-foot Catering & Commissary Kitchen at Unit 16, 1100 Waverley Street, which prepares over 150 menu items from scratch daily and supports a 24-hour, 365-days-per-year bakery operation to ensure freshness across all sites. The technology stack is conventional hospitality: a website (stellas.ca) with bilingual English/French versions and a direct online-ordering layer for pick-up, supplemented by third-party delivery.

Commercially, Stella's revenue derives from per-transaction unit pricing across dine-in, bakery retail, catering, gift cards, and off-premise channels. Customer segments are split between individual and family diners (the primary retail base) and corporate/event clients who engage the dedicated catering department during weekday office hours. Distribution is entirely single-country and single-metro: all 11 locations and the commissary sit within Winnipeg, with stated intent to expand further. The company is privately held with no institutional investment, no public listing, and no disclosed revenue, and employs between 11 and 50 staff at the corporate/management level, with field operations across the retail footprint.

Name

Stella's Cafe & Bakery

Legal name

Stella's Cafe & Bakery

Website

https://www.stellas.ca/

Company type

Private

Founded year

1999

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Stella's Cafe & Bakery is a privately held, founder-owned multi-location café, artisan bakery, and catering operator based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, running 11 retail locations—including a Winnipeg Airport unit—and a central commissary kitchen that prepares 150+ scratch-made items daily for dine-in, take-out, delivery, and corporate event customers.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Casual Dining Restaurants and Bakery

NAICS

Full-Service Restaurants (722511), Retail Bakeries (311811), Caterers (722320)

SIC

Retail-Eating & Drinking Places (5810), Bakery Products (2050)

akta.pro primary industry

Cafe-Bakeries (Bakery + Coffee/Foodservice) (THAFAFAG)

akta.pro secondary industries

All-Day Dining Restaurants (THAFACAJ), Cafe-Bakeries (Coffee + Pastry Focus) (THAFADAG)

Keywords

• Cafe and bakery services
• Artisan bakery products
• Corporate event catering
• Scratch-made restaurant meals
• Multi-location dining

Headquarters

HQ city

Winnipeg

HQ country

Canada

HQ region

North America

Offices11 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Dine-in Food and Beverage Sales: Revenue from customers dining at one of 11 café locations across Winnipeg, including breakfast, lunch, and dinner service with full bar offerings.
2. Catering Services: Corporate and personal event catering including breakfast trays, lunch sandwich platters, dinner entrées, desserts, and beverages. Office Hours Monday to Friday 7:30am-3:30pm, with Saturday and Sunday pick-up available.
3. Take-out and Delivery: Take-out orders placed by phone or online through Skip The Dishes platform for pick-up or delivery.
4. Bakery Retail: Retail baked goods including artisan breads, pastries, cookies, muffins, cakes, and seasonal items sold across all locations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Stella's Cafe & Bakery operates 11 dine-in café and bakery locations across Winnipeg, Manitoba, serving scratch-made breakfast, lunch, and dinner menus, artisan baked goods, and corporate and personal event catering. A 7,500-square-foot central commissary kitchen produces more than 150 items from scratch daily, including artisan breads, pastries, sandwiches, soups, and house-made jams, which are distributed to all locations and the catering operation. Take-out, Skip The Dishes delivery, and gift cards round out the offering.

Product overview

Stella's Cafe & Bakery operates as a multi-location cafe and bakery restaurant chain in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The offering consists of four integrated products: (1) Full-Service Dine-In Restaurants at 11 locations offering breakfast all day, lunch, and dinner menus featuring eggs, sandwiches, salads, burgers, pasta, curries, and desserts; (2) an Artisan Bakery producing handcrafted breads, pastries, cookies, muffins, bars, and cakes from scratch; (3) Catering Services for corporate events and gatherings with packaged breakfast, lunch, and dinner selections; and (4) Take-Out/Delivery for ordering any menu item at home. The business also offers Gift Cards as a supplementary product.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Dine-In Restaurant Services Full-service cafe and restaurant offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner with made-from-scratch dishes including eggs, sandwiches, salads, burgers, pastas, curries, and desserts across 11 Winnipeg locations. Designed for individual diners, families, and walk-in customers seeking sit-down service.
• Artisan Bakery Handcrafted breads, pastries, cookies, muffins, bars, squares, and cakes baked fresh daily, including sourdough breads, baguettes, focaccia, croissants, Danishes, cinnamon buns, and specialty desserts. Sold retail across all Stella's locations and used for catering.
• Catering Services Corporate and personal event catering offering breakfast, lunch, and dinner packages including sandwich trays, appetizers, entrées, desserts, and beverages for corporate events, partner meetings, business functions, family gatherings, and personal celebrations.
• Take-Out and Delivery Pick-up and delivery services available at all locations during regular business hours, allowing customers to order any menu item for enjoyment at home or at the office. Delivery is fulfilled through the Skip The Dishes platform.
• Gift Cards Prepaid gift card program allowing customers to purchase and check balances for use across all Stella's Cafe & Bakery locations.

Named customers2 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Skip The DishescoreChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorSkip The Dishes is used as a delivery platform for Stella's, enabling customers to order food for delivery through the Skip The Dishes app/website. This partnership extends Stella's reach to customers who prefer delivery over take-out or dine-in.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Tim Hortons: Canada's largest quick-service coffee and baked-goods chain with thousands of locations nationwide. Overlaps with Stella's on coffee, breakfast, and bakery categories but operates a limited-service QSR model versus Stella's full-service sit-down format.
• Boston Pizza: Major Canadian casual-dining restaurant chain with full bar service, dine-in, and large-scale catering. Overlaps with Stella's on dine-in service, full bar, and catering operations within the Winnipeg market, though it does not operate a dedicated bakery program.
• Starbucks: Global coffee chain with significant Canadian presence, offering beverages, breakfast items, and bakery. Competes for coffee, breakfast, and casual cafe occasions but lacks Stella's full sit-down restaurant menu and commissary-supplied scratch production.

Direct peers

• Second Cup: Canadian specialty coffee and cafe chain operating company-owned and franchised cafes across Canada. Directly comparable to Stella's as a multi-unit Canadian cafe operator with a food and bakery-led menu beyond coffee.
• Aroma Espresso Bar: Canadian cafe chain serving espresso beverages, baked goods, and light meals with a sit-down cafe experience. Comparable to Stella's in combining specialty coffee with a scratch-leaning bakery/food menu in a multi-unit Canadian footprint.
• Timothy's World Coffee: Canadian specialty coffee brand with cafe locations and packaged retail products. Comparable to Stella's as a Canadian coffee-and-food cafe operator, though with a more limited in-store bakery program.
• Panera Bread: US-based cafe-bakery chain known for scratch-made breads, soups, salads, and catering. The closest large-format comparable to Stella's cafe-bakery hybrid, though currently US-focused without Canadian retail scale.
• Bridgehead Coffee: Ottawa-based specialty coffee roaster and cafe chain operating company-owned retail locations with a baked-goods and light food offering. Comparable to Stella's as a multi-unit Canadian cafe with food and bakery extending beyond coffee.
• Le Pain Quotidien: International bakery-cafe concept built around communal tables, organic breads, and seasonal menus. Directly comparable to Stella's on the bakery-cafe positioning and scratch-made food ethos, though operating at a different price point.

Others

• EQ3: Canadian modern furniture retailer that hosts Stella's Cafe at EQ3 inside its Winnipeg showroom. Listed as a partner/host venue rather than a competitor; relevant as a non-traditional retail-channel partnership Stella's uses to reach furniture shoppers.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/Stellascafebakery
• Instagraminstagram.com/mystellas
• Xx.com/mystellas

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Stella's Cafe & Bakery