IRVING, TEXAS — Interstate Bakeries Corp. is reintroducing its Wonder and Home Pride brand bread varieties in the Southern California market. The company also will begin selling its Nature’s Pride bread in the region. I.B.C. had exited the market in October 2007 during bankruptcy proceedings and cited an unprofitable marketplace at that time.
"Today marks an exciting day for I.B.C., our union employees and management team, our wonderful retail partners and the scores of loyal Southern California consumers who spoke up, made their voices heard and urged us to bring back their favorite breads," said Mark Walsh, senior vice-president and general manager of I.B.C.’s California business unit. "With a successful restructuring now behind us, we are a stronger company with a revamped cost structure, which now enables us to respond to consumer demand and distribute our breads in an efficient, profitable way."
The move comes a little less than two years after I.B.C. closed four bread, bun and roll bakeries in Southern California and consolidated routes and distribution centers across the region. Since that time, the company has continued to bake, sell, and deliver Hostess and Dolly Madison snack cakes and donuts in Southern California.
I.B.C. said it will supply the products from its Sacramento, Calif., and Henderson, Nev., bakeries.
I.B.C. launched Nature’s Pride in February. The brand, I.B.C.’s first complete line of bread products to be introduced in several years, is billed by the company as the "first 100% natural brand of bread available across the country." The bread contains no artificial flavors or colors, no high-fructose corn syrup, no trans fats and no artificial preservatives.