Crown Bakeries Acquires WI Plant for Croissant Expansion

NASHVILLE, TN — Crown Bakeries (formerly known as The Bakery Cos.), a prominent manufacturer of fresh and frozen croissants, buns, bagels, biscuits, sweet goods, and dough products, announced Jan. 4 the acquisition of the Pleasant Prairie, WI manufacturing facility from Gold Standard Baking. The 200,000 square foot 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.

Commenting on the acquisition, President of Crown Bakeries Yianny Caparos said, “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. With the acquisition, we immediately expand our geographic footprint in the Midwest and 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 food, beverage, and related industries. Arbor announced the recapitalization of Crown Bakeries (formerly The Bakery Companies) with founder and CEO Cordia Harrington in October 2019 and has made significant investments to grow the business both organically and through acquisitions.

“Providing a robust and redundant supply chain is more critical to our customers today than ever before,” said Arbor Partner Chris Tuffin. “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 also offers additional floor space ready to accommodate further investment and expansion. This addition is truly a win for Crown and ultimately its customers.”

Winston & Strawn served as Crown’s legal counsel in connection with the transaction.

Founded in 1996 by Cordia Harrington and based in Nashville, Tennessee, Crown Bakeries manufactures a diverse line of fresh and frozen croissants, buns, bagels, biscuits, sweet goods, and dough products for leading foodservice, food manufacturing and retail customers in the United States. Crown operates state-of the-art baking lines throughout nine facilities, baking over seven million items daily and employing over 1,400 people. Product platforms include croissants, buns, English muffins, biscuits, bagels, rolls, frozen dough, artisan breads, sweet goods and pastries.