NASHVILLE — Crown Bakeries, a prominent manufacturer of fresh and frozen croissants, buns, bagels, biscuits, sweet goods and dough products, announced its acquisition of the Pleasant Prairie, WI, manufacturing facility from Gold Standard Baking. The 200,000-sq.-ft. state-of-the-art baking facility opened in 2017, producing and distributing laminated dough croissant products. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
With the addition of the Pleasant Prairie facility, Crown Bakeries will produce more than 10 million baked croissants per week, making Crown one of the largest croissant bakers in North America. The acquisition also expands the company’s geographic footprint in the Midwest.
“We welcome the Pleasant Prairie facility to the Crown baking family, which will bolster our company’s capabilities with a highly competent team of bakers,” said Yianny Caparos, president of Crown Bakeries. “Pleasant Prairie’s high-speed croissant line gives Crown much needed additional capacity in laminated dough. Growing Crown’s production capabilities and bandwidth is critical to providing best-in-class service to our customers nationwide while building redundancy and flexibility in our broader manufacturing network.”
Crown Bakeries is owned by Arbor Investments, a specialized private equity firm that focuses exclusively on acquiring premier companies in the food and beverage industry. Arbor announced the recapitalization of Crown Bakeries (formerly The Bakery Cos.) with founder and CEO Cordia Harrington in October 2019 and has made significant investments to grow the business organically and through acquisitions.
“Providing a robust and redundant supply chain is more critical to our customers today than ever before,” said Chris Tuffin, a partner at Arbor. “Pleasant Prairie becomes Crown’s ninth manufacturing facility, making Crown a formidable national baker. The facility is not only highly attractive in terms of geography, but it also offers additional floor space ready to accommodate further investment and expansion. This addition is truly a win for Crown and, ultimately, its customers.”
