Milling & Baking News - November 8, 2016 - 11

Miller Milling building additional
10,000-cwt milling unit in Texas
BLOOMINGTON, MINN. - Miller
Milling Co. has announced it is expanding daily production capacity at
its Saginaw, Texas, flour mill to 24,000
cwts. The project, which has just begun, will include construction of a
new milling unit with 10,000 cwts.
In addition to the new milling capacity, the project will entail necessary infrastructure for grain handling,
packaging, storage and load-out capabilities.
"The project also lays the groundwork to meet future flour demand
across the region," the company said.
The addition will add 70% to capacity
of the Saginaw mill and will make the
facility Miller Milling's second largest
flour mill (The Winchester, Va., mill
has 26,500 cwts of daily capacity). According to the Grain & Milling Annual,
the mill will be the second largest of
nine mills in Texas. The only larger
mill is the Ardent Mills flour mill, also
in Saginaw (in the Dallas-Fort Worth

area), with 26,000 cwts of daily milling
capacity.
"This expansion will let us better
serve our existing customers and attract new ones," said Jeffrey Thomas,
vice-president of operations at Miller Milling.
"Texas is one of the fastest growing areas of the
country, and population
growth means increased
demand for flour. Increasing
production
Thomas
capacity close to customers, distributors and consumers is
good for our customers."
Miller Milling said local wheat
will be ground at the Saginaw mill
and that the project is expected to be
completed by early 2019. Mr. Thomas said the expansion will include a
doubling of the facility's packaging
capacity and warehouse space, giving
Miller Milling room to "grow with
its existing customer base" and to

Pascal Rigo running bakery cafes
in San Francisco under new name
SAN FRANCISCO - A year after The
Starbucks Coffee Co. closed its La
Boulange retail bakeries, Pascal Rigo
has reopened a handful of the bakeries under the La Boulangerie de San
Francisco name.
Mr. Rigo opened the first La Boulange location in San
Francisco in 1999 and
joined Starbucks as
part of its $100 million 2012 acquisition
of La Boulange from
a management and
investment
group.
At the time, La Boulange was operating
19 retail locations in
the Bay Area. In June
2015 Starbucks said it
was closing the bakeries (the number had
grown to 23) as well
as two manufacturing
plants. Mr. Rigo left
Starbucks at the time.
Over the past year, Mr. Rigo has
turned a handful of former La Boulange locations into La Boulangerie de
San Francisco. A sixth location is slated to open shortly on Sutter Street in
bakingbusiness.com / world-grain.com

the Financial District. The bakery cafes
offer baked foods, sandwiches and salads as well as beverages.
According to a story in Eater San
Francisco, La Boulangerie also is
selling its baked foods in Trader
Joe's and Costco stores, making the

products in a 40,000-square-foot facility it reopened in South San Francisco.
The publication said the Trader Joe's
product is sold under store brands,
including one line dubbed Pain Pascal in a "nod" to Mr. Rigo.

Business

meet demand for packaged flour.
Established in 1985, Miller Milling
for many years specialized in durum
milling before expanding into hard
wheat. In 2012, the company was acquired by Nisshin Seifun Group of
Japan. At the time, Miller Milling operated flour mills in Winchester and
Fresno, Calif. Two years later, Miller
Milling acquired four flour mills divested as part of the creation of Ardent Mills L.L.C. In addition to Saginaw, the divested mills are located in
Commerce and Oakland, Calif.; and
New Prague, Minn. The expansion of
the Saginaw mill will raise aggregate
daily milling capacity of Miller Milling to 104,600 cwts.
Built in 1999, the Saginaw mill is
one of the newer flour mills in the
United States. But the facility has had
numerous owners in its 17-year history. Originally a partnership of Farmland Industries, Inc.; Bay State Milling
Co. and an Oklahoma regional cooperative, the mill was acquired a few
years later by ConAgra Mills. In 2008,
ConAgra expanded capacity of the
mill to 14,000 cwts from 6,000 cwts. MBN
Eater San Francisco said La Boulangerie plans to open as many as 40
locations in the Bay Area.
A year after announcing plans to
close the La Boulange locations, Starbucks said it was partnering with Princi, a high-end Italian bakery and cafe
founded by Rocco Princi in 1986. MBN

General Mills to
offer Girl Scouts
cookie cereals
MINNEAPOLIS - General Mills, Inc.
has partnered with the Girl Scouts of
America to introduce two new cereals
in 2017: Girl Scouts Thin Mints and Girl
Scouts Caramel Crunch.
The two flavors are expected to be
available for a limited time beginning
in January 2017. According to the Girl
Scouts, Thin Mints is the organization's
top selling cookie. The No. 2 selling
cookie is Caramel deLites, also known
as Samoas. The Caramel Crunch cereal
appears to incorporate the same flavor
as Caramel deLites.
"Yes, it's true!" General Mills noted
on its Twitter feed on Oct. 24. "Girl
Scouts cookie cereals will hit U.S. stores
in January. We'll share more details
soon!" MBN

Milling & Baking News XNovember 8, 2016 / 11

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Milling & Baking News - November 8, 2016

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