Baking & Snack - March 2005 - 8

EDITORIAL

Baking&Snack
EDITORIAL STAFF
Executive Editor
Laurie Gorton
lgorton@sosland.com

A Legacy of Category Change

he Oct. 14, 2002, launch of Sara Lee branded fresh bread - widely recognized as the
baking industry's most successful new brand introduction ever - is a notable high
point in Sara Lee Bakery Group's business history.
But it's not the first coup scored by this company. It has an enviable record of successful, market-changing new product introductions.
Thirty years ago, there was Earth Grains. When Campbell-Taggart (Sara Lee Bakery
Group's predecessor) launched the brand with 40 different pan variety breads in 1975, it
changed the whole marketplace. At the time, white bread was king, but American consumers were awakening to healthy eating and more complex flavors. Their attention turned to
variety breads, and the bread category has never been the same.
The problem with variety breads, compared with popular soft white styles, was that they
used more expensive ingredients, took longer to proof and bake and required additional
investment in process technology. Campbell-Taggart made the essential breakthrough by
applying freezing to solve the problem. Baked and packaged at one location, pan variety
breads were transported in a frozen state. Thawed under tightly controlled conditions, the
breads traveled via DSD to store shelves and sold as fresh. Thus, the company could leverage
investment at a single bakery across its entire distribution.
One result of the Earth Grains brand success was the change in name of CampbellTaggart to The Earthgrains Company.
Another was the recognition by Earthgrains that it could sell products with nutritional
profiles that moved beyond conventional enrichment. It developed IronKids brand bread.
Formulated as soft, white sandwich bread, it carried all the fiber of whole-wheat bread in
addition to conventional enrichment. The new bread actually went enrichment one better
by adding calcium, an optional nutrient, and two slices offered as much calcium as a glass
of milk. Acceptable to health-conscious parents, it was equally well-received by children
for its taste and texture.
IronKids marked an important first in fortified, not just enriched, breads.
About the time Earthgrains became Sara Lee Bakery Group, it was working on a new
wrinkle for sandwich bread: a crustless style. Developed in its international division,
Crustless came to American consumers under the IronKids brand. With the dry exterior crust already removed, it answered the "no more crusts" cry of America's kids while
providing them the extra nutrition of the IronKids formulation.
Today, the accomplishments of the Sara Lee brand in fresh bread tend to overshadow these earlier successes. Yet all have contributed a legacy of change to the fresh
bread category.
For these achievements in category changing initiatives, Sara Lee Bakery Group deserves the title of Sosland
Publishing's "2005 Baker of the Year." But there's far more
to the story than that. Consider the company's financial
strength, nutrition leadership, team building and diversity
programs and its embrace of change. All are detailed here,
starting on Page 30.
- Laurie Gorton
Executive Editor
lgorton@sosland.com

10 / BAKING & SNACK / March 2005

Editor

Steve Berne
sberne@sosland.com

Managing Editor
Senior Editor

Holly Bradley
hbradley@sosland.com
Shane Whitaker
swhitaker@sosland.com

Contributing Editor

Richard F. Stier

Contributing Editor

Dr. Clyde E. Stauffer

DESIGN STAFF
Design Services Manager
Sadowna McClun
Designer

Valerie Ristau

Manager of Advertising Design

Becky White

PUBLISHING STAFF
Chairman

Charles S. Sosland

Vice-chairman

L. Joshua Sosland

President

Mark Sabo

Publishing Director

G. Michael Gude

Publisher

Paul Lattan

Vice-President,
Chief Financial Officer

Melanie Hepperly

Director of Production

Vance Spearman

Director of Circulation

Gwendolyn Cogshell

Director of Research

Marjorie Troxel Hellmer

Advertising Manager
Ad Materials Coordinator
Digital Systems Analyst
Circulation Manager
Marketing Communications
Coordinator/ Reprint Manager

Nora Wages
Debbie Maniez
Marj Potts
Sheryl Morrow
Carrie Land

Editorial and Midwest Sales Office
4800 Main St., Suite 100, Kansas City, MO 64112
Phone: (816) 756-1000; Fax: (816) 756-0494
E-mail: bakesnack@sosland.com
Internet: http://www.bakingbusiness.com

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Baking & Snack - March 2005

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