Since Sliced Bread

In this episode of Since Sliced Bread , Yianny Caparos, president of The Bakery Cos., explains why the business didn’t shy away from growth despite the pandemic’s uncertainty. Hear the unique challenges that came with expanding in the midst of COVID-19 and how the company overcame those obstacles.

To keep the production line running, baking and snack companies are finding new ways to support and incentivize their workers throughout the pandemic. Baking & Snack spoke with Rob Sarlls, president and chief executive officer, Wyandot Snacks, about why the company decided to give its employees snacks, extra pay and quarantine aid during the crisis and how it has impacted morale.

As bakeries develop their COVID-19 contingency plans, shutting down operations for an outbreak should be a part of their strategy. In this episode, Jaime Correa, chief executive officer of AbiMar Foods, Abilene, Texas, shared the company’s experience closing its facilities when an outbreak was detected.

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has upended consumer buying habits and the way business is done, the supermarket has been where all of these changes have converged. In this episode of Since Sliced Bread , David Ball, president and chief executive officer of Ball Foods, shares how his 26 grocery stores managed employee safety, avoided supply chain disruptions and kept customers’ carts full d...

Running a bakery during a pandemic comes with a lot of extra challenges from rearranging production to keeping employees safe. In this episode, Jeff Dearduff, president and CEO of Gold Standard Baking, shared how increased demand at the supermarket and evaporating foodservice business changed Gold Standard’s operations. He also discusses how the company helped workers adapt by forming a COVID-19 e...

The COVID-19 pandemic upended life around the world in ways no one could have predicted. Since mid-March, the US has seen panic buying at the supermarket, stay-at-home orders, school closings and more measures all aimed at hindering the spread of COVID-19. And those measures had implications for food purchases and the commercial baking industry. In this episode, Jonna Parker, principal, fresh cent...

The new normal is here, but what does that mean for the baking industry? In season three of Baking & Snack ’s podcast Since Sliced Bread , Senior Editor Charlotte Atchley will look at how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the sector and how commercial bakers are responding to the demands brought on by the virus.

It is no secret that the COVID-19 pandemic has completely changed the way consumers buy food and how food companies do business. In light of these significant changes, Since Sliced Bread closes its second season by checking in on some of the featured companies.

Sadie Scheffer started baking gluten-free bread to impress a crush who would become her husband. It worked, and it impressed a lot more people, too. With her gluten-free sourdough, Ms. Scheffer was able to start a small wholesale bakery, Bread SRSLY, Berkeley, Calif. In the past eight years, the bakery has managed its own production, outsourced to a co-manufacturer and brought production back in-h...

After developing a proprietary technology for turning spent brewing grains into a food-safe flour called SuperGrain+, Daniel Kurzrock and Jordan Schwartz founded ReGrained. The company uses the flour in its line of branded snacks that includes nutrition bars and puffs. In this episode of Since Sliced Bread , Mr. Kurzrock shares the challenges they’ve faced not just creating ReGrained but also deve...

Founder and Owner Greg Acerra’s culinary background has informed how he has built Fireking Baking Co. over the years. Many of the bakery’s customers are restaurants like his own. In this episode of Since Sliced Bread , Mr. Acerra details how premium ingredients can pay off and how he worked around his own knowledge gaps to overcome the challenges of a growing bakery.

Stacy Madison’s, founder of Stacy’s Pita Chips and BeBOLD, shares the challenges that come with creating new products that defy expectations and the importance of staying connected with consumers.

Rubicon Bakers was started as a non-profit in 1993 by Rubicon Programs as a job training program for the Bay area’s homeless population, those recovering from addiction and the formerly incarcerated. Ten years ago Andrew Stoloff and Leslie Crary, a restaurant-owner and lawyer, respectively, purchased the bakery and turned it into a profitable business without losing the original mission.

Brazi Bites founder and CMO Junea Rocha explains how exposure and timing helped bring the brand to the national stage. She shares how Brazi Bites cleared hurdles to become a successful business in the competitive snack industry.

Season two of Since Sliced Bread will explore the emergence of “accidental” bakers and snack makers. We’ll tell the stories of how they got started, the challenges they faced and how they are disrupting their categories — or in some cases — how they are creating completely new ones. In this first episode, we sat down with Monica Watrous, managing editor of Food Business News . She’ll explain what’...

Since Sliced Bread returns April 15! On season two, we’ll be talking to bakers and snack makers who got into the industry by accident. Tune in to learn how these entrepreneurs transformed their ideas into reality and how they are disrupting their categories.

Consumers may be cutting carbs, but King’s Hawaiian Bakery is not feeling the pinch. Despite overall declining bread sales, the company has experienced double-digit growth the past few years, said Chad Donvito, chief marketing officer for King’s Hawaiian. In this episode, Mr. Donvito shares how the company invested in a marketing message that embraced the products’ shareable, celebratory nature.

In this episode, , Charlie Negaro Jr., CEO, Chabaso, shares his experience learning about and supporting regional agricultural. He outlines what farmers need from local, state and federal government and the baking industry in order to grow these ingredients and make a regional agriculture model sustainable.

While sliced bread declines, other baking industry segments like tortillas are picking up the slack. And a large part of the problem, Tom Gumpel, founder and CEO of MDJ Baking and former vice-president of bakery research and development for Panera Bread, argues, is the lack of innovation from the bread producers. He appeals to the baking industry to move away from white bread and take the time to...

What we eat, where we eat and how we eat are changing, and the commercial baking industry needs to adapt to those changes in order to grow. In this episode, Daniel Servitje, CEO and chairman of Grupo Bimbo, shares how the company is keeping up with the fast-paced change and how the industry can be a part of the consumer conversation. He also makes a case for how a checkoff program can educate cons...

In this episode of Since Sliced Bread , Jon Davis, vice-president of innovation for Aryzta North America and La Brea Bakery, discusses how La Brea Bakery has partnered with farmers to develop new breads with heirloom and sprouted grains. He shares not only why he thinks these ingredients are part of the future of bread but also some of the hurdles the industry will have to clear for sustainable ch...

With the proliferation of blogs, social media and smartphones, consumers have a wealth of information at their literal fingertips, sometimes too much — or even inaccurate — information. On this episode of Since Sliced Bread, Julie Martin, social media manager for Martin’s Famous Pastry Shoppe, shares how the bakery is communicating on social media the healthfulness of its bread and the value the c...

The first season of Since Sliced Bread will examine falling bread sales and talk with industry leaders about bringing consumers back to the bread aisle. In this first episode, we speak to Josh Sosland, editor of Milling & Baking News and editor-in-chief of Food Business News, to find out how the sliced bread market is performing and what led to this decline.

On Jan. 15, 2020, Baking & Snack will launch its first podcast, Since Sliced Bread. From declining bread sales to the workforce crisis, the series will explore a new topic each season in hopes of uncovering new solutions to the industry latest challenges.