THOMASVILLE, GA. — Flowers Foods, Inc. has put up for sale the Biddeford, Maine-based bakery that it acquired as part of its purchase of the former Hostess Brands in July 2013. Flowers is asking $8.5 million for the property, which includes a 265,000-square-foot building and 40-acre lot. The Biddeford bakery was built in 1998.
“We have listed the Biddeford bakery and eight other closed Hostess bakeries for sale because they do not fit with our strategic growth plan and are located in areas where we have sufficient production capacity,” said Sally Bowman, a spokeswoman for Flowers Foods. “Equipment inside the building will either be sold or moved to other bakeries we operate.”
Flowers acquired 20 idled baking plants and other “bread assets” from Hostess Brands in July 2013 for $355 million. The first of the bakeries to reopen was in Henderson, Nev., in late November 2013. More recently, Flowers on March 24 said it will open a bakery in Knoxville, Tenn., in late May.
But not all the former Hostess plants will be reopened. Bradley K. Alexander, president of Flowers Bakeries/D.S.D. Segment, in mid-March said Flowers has listed 9 bakeries and 21 depots for sale, though he did not disclose the locations of the bakeries that are expected to be opened or of those that are currently for sale.
“We have contracts pending on several of those properties, and several transactions for sale of the depots are already completed,” he said. “On an annual basis, our carry-in costs would be reduced by about $10 million when the 9 bakeries and the depots are sold. Depending on the time of the sales transaction, we could see improvement in 2014 of as much as $5 million. We have inventoried all equipment and parts for the possible use in our other bakeries.”
