NASHVILLE, TENN. — To bolster its presence in the breakfast carrier category, The Bakery Cos. has broken ground on a 50,000-square-foot expansion to its Nashville operation to produce frozen, thaw-and-serve croissants for the retail, in-store bakery and foodservice channels.

Yianny Caparos, president, The Bakery Cos., said the new bakery will boast one of the nation’s largest high-speed croissant production lines as well as enough cold storage space to house an additional 5,000 pallets of frozen product.

The expansion is located on land adjacent to the company’s Nashville Cold Storage facility, where it also currently operates a frozen biscuit and dough operation. The company plans to hire 70 people to support the new bakery.

The Bakery Cos. was recapitalized in September 2019 by Chicago-based Arbor Investments, a private equity firm that focuses on investing in companies within the food and beverage industries. Today, the company manufactures a wide range of fresh and frozen buns, bread, biscuits, English muffins and frozen dough products.

“We really like the biscuit and English muffin as versatile breakfast carriers,” Mr. Caparos said. “The natural product line extension to this daypart is croissants. We’re thrilled to round out our category offering with thaw-and-serve, sliced butter and margarine croissants that come in all shapes and sizes and will be manufactured at high speeds that enable us to be a low-cost provider.”

For Mr. Caparos and his brother, George Caparos, chief development officer, the return to the croissant market is a bit of a homecoming.

“It’s a product that we’ve spent more than 30 years baking, and that our father so successfully introduced us to,” Mr. Caparos said. “It has provided a livelihood for our family for decades. It’s exciting to be re-entering the category and being able to offer croissants to our friends in the industry who are looking for new partners.”

The project is being overseen by Scott Shelley, corporate vice president of operations, and Dan Dodevski, vice president of engineering.

In March, The Bakery Cos. acquired Steck Wholesale Foods of North Sioux City, SD, which produces biscuits and English muffins for grocers and convenience store chains, complementing the company’s existing foodservice business.

Cordia Harrington, chief executive officer, noted the Steck purchase not only provided “a hand-in-glove fit for The Bakery Cos.,” but also offered redundancy in manufacturing capabilities at geographically dispersed facilities.