SMYRNA, GA — Mike Schlegel loves his job. As a director of R&D for Nashville, TN-based Crown Bakeries, he comes to work every day in a veritable product development playground in Crown’s newly renovated Smyrna, GA, facility, one of nine in the company’s network. Providing a space for collaborative innovation was the goal here. Well, at least one of them. To truly understand the impact of this approximately $20 million transformation, we must go back to the beginning … and take a peek at the future.
Crown Bakeries — born out of the bun and roll powerhouse previously known as Tennessee Bun Company — was founded in the mid-90s by industry icon and current American Bakers Association board chair Cordia Harrington, who serves as the bakery’s CEO. Before the company rebranded as Crown Bakeries in 2021, brothers Yianny and George Caparos, two Baking Hall of Famers with decades of experience in croissant and sweet goods production, came on board when it recapitalized under Arbor Investments. From that acquisition, Yianny became Crown’s president and George took on the role of chief development officer.
In 2020, between the Caparos’ arrival and the company’s rebranding, Crown Bakeries acquired the Smyrna bakery from Specialty Bakers, a producer of tea cakes and sweet goods. No one can say for sure which came first — the plan to get into the laminated and sweet baked goods market or the availability of the Smyrna plant — but when the stars aligned, Crown Bakeries began charting a new course.
The Caparos brothers saw potential in this facility, especially with existing assets including a Rademaker USA laminated dough production line that had been greatly underutilized. Like those reality TV house flippers who can see the promise that awaits a fixer upper, George and Yianny walked through the Smyrna bakery and instantly envisioned Crown’s entry into the thaw-and-serve croissant game.
“That’s how we really look at all our new facilities,” said Chance Delany, director of strategic analysis for Crown Bakeries. “We look at a potential partner and say, ‘This is what we think it can look like in the future.’ Crown had a lot of clients who were looking for capacity with frozen croissants, and we saw that we could easily get into that market with this facility.”
With a long history of relationships on the laminated side, Yianny not only saw the opportunity to fill immediate needs for customers; he also recognized it as a launch pad into the category and a chance for serious growth.
“The acquisition of the Smyrna facility kickstarted our capabilities to bring Crown into the croissant business,” Yianny said. “It diversified our product mix and customer base. It allowed us to go back to those areas where we had long, tenured relationships, and that allowed us to grow exponentially in a new market.”
This story has been adapted from the Feb. | Q1 2023 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the full story in the digital edition here.
