Milling & Baking News - December 24, 2013 - 14

Business 

A.S.B. names Baking Hall
of Fame inductees for 2014
SWEDESBORO, N.J. - The American Society of Baking has named
Donald R. Shaffer, founder of Shaffer
Manufacturing Corp.; Mariano, Eugenio, Renato, Umberto and Giancarlo
Turano, Turano Baking Co.; and John
J. Watson, former president and chairman of Watson, Inc., as its 2014 inductees to the Baking Hall of Fame.
Mr. Shaffer returned from service
in the U.S. Navy during World War
II and found his professional home
in the baking industry, working for
manufacturers of commercial bakery
mixers. He started as a draftsman
and progressed into top-level management positions. When the entrepreneurial bug bit in 1986, he and his
sons launched Shaffer Manufacturing Corp.
He developed several new technologies that substantially improved
bakery operations and was granted a
patent for cooling jackets for high-capacity horizontal mixers. Mr. Shaffer
also pioneered dual-drive, all-stainless
and open-frame horizontal mixers.
In 2007, the company was sold to its

current owner, Bundy Baking Solutions. Mr. Shaffer also led his community as a member of several local service and veterans organizations.
He died earlier this year.
Turano Baking Co., now
a multi-plant, multi-million-dollar family ownedand-operated enterprise,
started out in a space of
just 1,000 square feet when
brothers Mariano and Eugenio Turano decided to make a living
for their families with something they
loved: the Old World bakery recipes
they brought from their native Italy.
Under the second generation -
Mariano's sons Renato (Ron), Umberto (Tony) and Giancarlo Turano
- the business expanded into a
100,000-square-foot site at Berwyn
and similarly sized facilities at Bolingbrook, Ill., Villa Rica, Ga., and Orlando, Fla. The Turanos have served as officers of national baking industry and
many local organizations. Ron Turano
also was elected to the Italian Senate to
represent Italians living overseas. The

Outlook uncertain for bankrupt
Theodoro Baking in St. Louis
ST. LOUIS - A takeover or an infusion
of capital is being sought for Theodoro
Baking Co., a wholesale baking business
that declared bankruptcy earlier this year.
Based in Hazelwood, a St. Louis suburb,
Theodoro filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection Aug. 23 in the U.S. Bankruptcy
Court, Eastern District of Missouri, Eastern Division.
"Everything is on the table," said Bonnie L. Clair, an attorney with Summers
Compton Wells in St. Louis. "It's possible
there will be a sale or an investment by a
strategic partner."
Ms. Clair, who has been representing
Theodoro in the bankruptcy, said the

company has been operating with debtorin-possession financing since the filing.
The company has more than 100 employees and operates a baking plant in
Hazelwood where it produces wholesale
baked foods and frozen bakery products
marketed to a wide range of customers,
including supermarkets, convenience
stores and institutional customers such as
in-house cafeterias. Its products are sold in
the St. Louis region as well as into other unspecified markets around the country. Customers in the St. Louis area are supplied
through direct-store delivery distribution.
Theodoro's products include donuts,
bread, bagels, cakes, cookies, pastries and

Nebraska bakers, mill start Internet food business
WAUNETA, NE - Four southwest Nebraska bakery businesses have joined together
to offer fresh-baked products through their
web site, WhiteThumbBakers.com.
Products will feature the hard red
wheat flour from Wauneta Roller Mills,
Nebraska's last remaining independent,
family-owned mill, founded in 1925.
Customers will be able to purchase
14 / December 24, 2013 Milling & Baking News

assorted packages of baked goods such as
Stollen during the Christmas season, granola bars and cereal, banana bread and cookies
as well as other specialty bread and baked
goods. Each shipment, ranging in price from
$29.95 to $79.95, will include four different
product assortments in varying quantities.
Shipping is free on the $79.95 package.
The web site offers videos on each of

company celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2012 with its third generation
now in key management roles.
Mr. Watson, retired president and
second-generation chairman of family-owned Watson, Inc., West Haven,
Conn., worked tirelessly to improve
the nutritional health of the
American population, helping to shape the scientific
and regulatory guidelines
within which the baking
industry now works. His
company innovated with
soluble enrichment packs
that ensured error-free dosing
of vitamins and minerals. Under his
direction, the company pioneered in
premix technology.
He was president of the American
Association of Cereal Chemists and
served on the American Institute of
Baking's board of trustees and scientific board. He also consulted with the
World Health Organization on nutritional anemia matters around the
world. He died in 2008.
The 2014 class will be officially inducted at A.S.B.'s BakingTech, set
for March 2-4 in Chicago. For more
information on the conference, visit
www.asbe.org. MBN
other sweet goods. The company's annual
sales are estimated at $6 million to $7 million although they were significantly higher several years ago.
Ms. Clair said R.L. Hulett & Company,
Inc., a St. Louis-based investment firm,
has been engaged to facilitate the sale of
the business. Representatives of Hulett
were unavailable for comment, but materials from the company indicate a significant capacity expansion in 2011 was
completed earlier this year.
Theodoro is owned by Michael Daniels of
St. Louis. The company's primary secured
lender was Great Southern Bank, which is
owed about $3.4 million. A filing in late November cited additional debt of $424,345.44
in "unsecured priority obligations due
and owing as well as approximately
$2,508,803.24 of general unsecured debt." MBN
the members in what they call the White
Thumb Bakers Guild as well as detailed
descriptions of their products.
The guild includes Valerie Rogers
of Prairie Harvest, Trenton, Neb.; Matt
Sehnert of Sehnert's Bakery, McCook,
Neb.; Sarah Risenhoover of HomeSpun,
McCook, Neb., and Ashley Einspahr,
who with her husband Rogan owns the
Wauneta Roller Mills, Wauneta, Neb. MBN
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

http://www.asbe.org http://www.WhiteThumbBakers.com http://www.bakingbusiness.com http://www.world-grain.com

Milling & Baking News - December 24, 2013

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