Labriola Baking Co., an automated/artisan bakery in Alsip, Ill., seems to be expanding constantly, thanks to the efforts of ‘Chief Dough Boy’ and CEO Rich Labriola and his staff. Business has grown at double-digit rates, allowing for a move to a spacious, 175,000-sq.ft. production facility and the opening of a hot-spot bakery café. It’s latest project? Pretzel bread.
Fun and food go hand in hand, especially at Nation Pizza and Foods. With more than 60 years of experience in the baking and prepared foods business, this manufacturer/contract packager/recipe creator is an expert at crafting frozen pizzas, pizza crusts, sandwiches, appetizers, cookies, bread sticks and a variety of sweets at its two U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) facilities at rates of more than 2 million pieces daily.
With the holidays upon us and the year about to end, many of us have the tired feet to prove that we conquered another PACK EXPO International in October, while some of us are still recuperating from the iba 2012 show in September.
Axium Foods, known best for private-label, corn-based snacks, launches its own brand of enhanced-nutrition tortilla chips of a different color, Mystic Harvest Purple Corn Tortilla Chips. Loaded with healthful antioxidants, the chips are not only eye-catching, they have a tasty flavor and crunch.
Axium Foods’ 130,000-sq.-ft, corn-based snacks operation in South Beloit, Ill., has expanded several times, thanks in part to the success of the many private-label products it packs and products it copacks. It’s also launching its own line of Mystic Harvest purple tortilla chips, which contain powerful antioxidants. Outfitted with seven highly flexible production lines, Axium produces 150 different stock-keeping units of snacks each week.
Serving a substantial portion of the Southeast, including the Five Guys hamburger restaurant chain, Masada Bakery has a deep commitment to customer service, quality standards and an ability to flex with a major growth curve in a tough economy. It’s for these and other reasons that we named it our 2012 Wholesale Baker of the Year.
Masada Bakery’s 100,000-sq.-ft. bakery operation in Norcross, Ga., continues to grow, even in a slumping economy, thanks in part to the dramatic success of several customers.
