Alpha Baking Co.
Alpha Baking Co. has steadily expanded through the years to offer a significant diversity of baked goods to foodservice customers and retailers.
For the complete story on Alpha Baking Co., see “Alpha Baking Co. - Growth through diversity.”
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History runs deep at Chicago-based Alpha Baking Co. Inc. Through several strategic acquisitions through the years, the bakery has grown into a national presence in diversified markets that include retail, private label and foodservice.
Alpha Baking Co. just installed a new bun line at its Lyndale Avenue plant in Chicago. “We were making some bagels and some specialty products,” says Larry Marcucci. “We took that equipment out and put in a fully automated bun line.” The new line will help increase capacity for buns, and open another line for production of more bread. So growth continues for a bakery that has made significant strides through the years.
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Alpha Baking Co. joined forces with the S. Rosen’s brand in 1981. S. Rosen’s traces its roots back to 1909, when Samuel Rosen moved to Chicago in his early 20s and began baking Old World hearth rye breads. Today, Samuel’s grandson, Steve Rosen, works at Alpha Baking Co. as vice president and general manager.
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Another legendary Alpha Baking Co. brand, Mary Ann—now known as S. Rosen’s Mary Ann—got its start in 1935 in Chicago, baking poppy seed hot dog buns, the go-to roll for Chicago-style hot dogs across the country. If you’ve ever eaten a true Chicago-style hot dog, chances are, it was on a Mary Ann poppy seed bun. More than 90 percent of Chicago-area hot dog stands use Mary Ann buns.
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S. Rosen’s French Rolls are classic deli-style sandwich rolls best known for their role in Italian beef sandwiches—another Chicago staple.
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Alpha Baking Co. is known for its buns—including specialty, gourmet, multigrain and brioche—and all have been posting impressive gains of late. The brioche buns are one of the most-recent additions to the lineup. “The brioche—that is the hot ticket right now,” says Tim J. Gill, vice president, frozen foodservice, noting that any brioche formulated line extensions, such as hamburger buns or sausage rolls, are what’s trending now. “I think you are going to see it pushing to other products.”
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Another strategic acquisition was Natural Ovens in 2007, a pioneer in all-natural, preservative-free breads with roots in Wisconsin. This move brought a new niche to the bakery. “It gave us a presence in the organic products lines, the natural products lines,” says Larry Marcucci, president, Alpha Baking Co. “So, we were able to leverage some of that into our retail operations, and it gave us a lot broader scope to build from.”
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Product diversity is a hallmark of Alpha Baking Co., and the number of SKUs it offers across its customer network exceeds 1,000. “There’s a nice diversity, from hearth-baked products to screen-baked products to core commodity types of products,” says Tim Gill.
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The S. Rosen’s Klassic Onion Buns are notable due to the larger particle sizes of onion atop the buns, along with a scattering of poppy seeds. For a bakery that has a significant investment in the buns and rolls category, the “better burger” trend has also provided a strong boost to business in recent years. “When the consumer goes out to buy a hamburger, it’s all bigger, better buns, bigger, better burgers,” says Tim Gill.
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Today, Alpha Baking Co. operates four plants, including two in Chicago. Its La Porte, IN, plant came through the acquisition of Kreamo Bakers, and its Manitowac, WI, facility was the original home of Natural Ovens Bakery. All four plants are certified-kosher, and the Wisconsin plant is certified-organic. Regular inspections are conducted by AIB International, Silliker Labs, ASI Food Safety and FDA.
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Nostalgia runs deep in the bakery world. “We still sell wax-wrapped Pullman breads,” says Larry Marcucci, referring to the square pan breads made famous via their use in luxurious Pullman dining cars during the heyday of fashionable railroad travel in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. “Most of these loaves are used in toasted sandwiches like club sandwiches, so we formulate that bread for optimal toasting, unlike the softer-style retail products.”