Blaming changes in local market conditions and a lack of operations efficiencies, Hostess Brands, Inc. decided to close its bread bakery in Akron, Ohio.
The Dallas-based company expects that production at the bakery will end by June 25.
According to Hostess, the Akron bakery employs about 100 people. Hostess also employs about 400 sales and retail personnel in the region, whose jobs will not be affected by the bakery closing. They will continue to serve the marketplace with bread products produced at Hostess Brands’ Northwood, Ohio, bakery. The company’s office operations will continue in Akron.
Specifically, declining purchase of bread by consumers in the area prompted Hostess to consolidate its Northwood bakery and close the Akron bakery, which has been operating since 1923. According to a company release, the age of the facility also would have made it too expensive to modernize the plant’s operation that would have been required to meet changing consumer preferences.
Customers will continue to receive both bread and snack cake products without interruption. Hostess Brands’ bread products will be produced in the Northwood bakery and transported to the Akron area. Snack cake products already are being delivered to the Akron area from other plants in Ohio and neighboring states.
Hostess to Close Akron Bakery
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