New bread company rolls into town

Mrs. Baird’s, founded in Fort Worth, Texas, in 1908, already makes more than 2 million loaves of bread weekly for delivery throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas and New Mexico.

Now the company is bringing its bakery products to grocery stores in Springfield, Joplin, Branson and other area communities.

Roger Hochstetler, regional sales manager for Mrs. Baird’s in southwest Missouri, said the company’s expansion here was inevitable.

“It was a strategic move. We’ve been in north Arkansas for the last three or four years, and Springfield was geographically a good addition,” Hochstetler said. “It was a good test for us to roll out in (this) market and see how the acceptance was.”

The company began offering its breads July 18 at most area grocery stores, including Wal-Mart Supercenter, Dillon’s, Price Cutter and Country Mart.

Dillon’s stores in Springfield began carrying the products as a test market for the grocery chain, said corporate spokeswoman Kim Svoboda.

“It does great in Texas. It has a great background and the product is wonderful, so we’re trying to move it through slowly to make sure that we get it in the right stores at the right time,” Svoboda said. “It has a really great customer draw, and it’ll give another compelling reason for guests to shop in our stores.”

Svoboda said Dillon’s plans to introduce Mrs. Baird’s products in the rest of its stores in Missouri and Kansas after Sept. 12.

So far, according to Mrs. Baird’s spokeswoman Elizabeth Watters, the response to the new products in the Ozarks has been positive.

“We’ve been around since 1908, and it’s taken us a while to get up to southern Missouri,” she said. “There was a lot of excitement for the products, and so far I’ve had great experiences.”

The company delivers its breads through a network of distribution centers, with facilities in Springfield, 3,000 square feet at 2445 E. Livingston, and Joplin, 2,000 square feet at 1910 S. Duquesne Rd. The distribution centers together employ 20.

Grupo Bimbo

Mrs. Baird’s is a subsidiary of Bimbo Bakeries USA, the U.S. division of Mexico’s Grupo Bimbo. Mrs. Baird’s originally started as a small bakery in the Fort Worth home of Ninnie Baird.

The company began to grow when Baird’s husband died of diabetes in 1911, forcing her to turn the home bakery into a business to support her eight children.

The company continued to grow and expand as a family business until 1998, when it was purchased by Mexican baked-goods producer Grupo Bimbo.

The publicly traded Mexican company puts considerable weight behind the brand, with assets of more than $3 billion as of June 30. Grupo Bimbo has operations in 14 countries and is traded on the Mexican Stock Exchange under the symbol BIMBOA.

Mrs. Baird’s is distributed through Bimbo Bakeries USA, which also distributes products by Entenmann’s and Oroweat.