The Bakery Companies has acquired a baking plant in Smyrna, Ga., from Specialty Bakers LLC. The Smyrna facility is located less than 20 miles from The Bakery Cos.’ existing operations in Norcross, Ga., and produces and distributes laminated dough items, including croissant and Danish, as well as sweet baked goods for in-store bakeries. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are tremendously excited by this acquisition as broadening of our production capabilities is critical to best serving our customers nationwide,” said Yianny Caparos, president of The Bakery Cos. “While we began construction last month in Nashville for our new ultra-high-speed croissant line, the addition of Smyrna to our manufacturing network dramatically turbo-charges our re-entry into the croissant and Danish categories, enabling us to deliver these products as early as this summer.

“The capabilities across frozen dough, pre-proofed and fully baked items meet the varied needs of our customers. We have already experienced tremendous interest for these products across every channel, and we can’t wait to join forces with the outstanding team at Smyrna to address the pent-up demand.”

Cordia Harrington, chief executive officer of The Bakery Cos., added, “We are thrilled to be welcoming the team of associates in Smyrna to our Bakery Companies family. Their product and customer portfolio complements our existing business and will enable us to offer a broader range of unique, high-quality baked goods across both sweet and savory categories. Bringing differentiated products that meet both the changing tastes of consumers and the evolving needs of our customers is critical, and Smyrna addresses both.”

The announcement comes less than a month after The Bakery Cos. broke ground on a 50,000-square-foot expansion to its Nashville operation to produce frozen, thaw-and-serve croissants for the retail, in-store bakery and foodservice channels.

Mr. Caparos said the Nashville plant will boast one of the nation’s largest high-speed croissant production lines as well as enough cold storage space to house an additional 5,000 pallets of frozen product.

The expansion is located on land adjacent to the company’s Nashville Cold Storage facility, where it also currently operates a frozen biscuit and dough operation. The company plans to hire 70 people to support the new bakery.

In March, The Bakery Cos. acquired Steck Wholesale Foods of North Sioux City, SD, which produces biscuits and English muffins for grocers and convenience store chains, complementing the company’s existing foodservice business.

The Bakery Cos. was recapitalized in September 2019 by Chicago-based Arbor Investments, a private equity firm that focuses on investing in companies within the food and beverage industries.

“Smyrna adds a sixth facility to our platform, brings exciting new manufacturing capabilities and is a highly attractive fit in terms of geographic location and proximity,” said Chris Tuffin, a partner at Arbor Investments. “Our second acquisition for The Bakery Cos. in just two months, we are exceptionally pleased to further grow and will continue to seek opportunities to add complementary businesses to our expanding group of passionate bakers.”

The Bakery Cos. manufactures a broad line of fresh and frozen bread, baked foods and dough products for leading foodservice, food manufacturing and retail customers in the United States and Caribbean. The company operates 16 baking lines throughout six facilities, baking over six million items daily and employing more than 500 people. Product platforms include buns, English muffins, rolls, biscuits, frozen dough, artisan bread and pastries.

https://www.bakingbusiness.com/articles/51018-the-bakery-cos-acquires-plant-from-specialty-bakers