Milling & Baking News - June 1, 2021 - 12

TUES | 06 01 202 1
Aryzta N. America seeks to soar
with rebrand to Aspire Bakeries
LOS ANGELES - Aryzta North America,
which earlier this year was acquired by private
equity firm Lindsay Goldberg for $850
million, has changed its name to Aspire
Bakeries, a decision that reflects the company's
aim to " continue to move upwards. "
Following the completion of the transaction
in early May, Aspire Bakeries
said its strategies will remain the
same, with a continued focus on its
three core brands - La Brea Bakery,
Otis Spunkmeyer and Oakrun Farm
Bakery - as well as on quick-service
restaurants, foodservice and retail
in-store bakeries.
" Our brands established our North
American business as a leader in baked
goods, as they all have strong, long-standing
reputations of providing customers
with delectable foods across the artisan
bread and baked goods categories, " said
Tyson Yu, chief executive officer of
Aspire Bakeries. " Aspire Bakeries will
execute a business strategy that focuses
on continued innovation and growth
across our beloved brands. "
Aspire Bakeries emerged as the winning
name from among 150 ideas submitted
by some of the company's 4,500
employees. Alex Gillis, a bakery supervisor
at the bakery in Brantford, Ont.,
recommended the name Aspire, saying,
" as we aspire to be the best bakery
in North America, what better
name than Aspire to represent
our desire to not only achieve
three brands to drive growth in both
retail and foodservice. La Brea Bakery
recently announced it expanded its
Take & Bake portfolio to include six new
flavors, available nationwide in grocery
stores and on Amazon Fresh; Otis Spunkmeyer
launched a hybrid version of its
muffin loaves and introduced frozen
edible cookie dough, available
through its fundraising
initiative; Oakrun Farm
Bakery, which until now
" Aspire means to ascend, to soar, and that's what we
are aiming to do for our customers and our business. "
- Christine Prociv, Aspire Bakeries
our goals but exceed them. "
" We're lucky to have such hardworking,
motivated and creative employees working
for us across North America, some of
whom have been with the company for
decades, " said Christine Prociv, senior vice
president of marketing, innovation and
R&D at Aspire. " We wanted a truly collaborative
experience when it came time to
create a new name, and what better way
than to involve all of our associates. "
The company said it will invest in its
Ceres to build $350 million canola
crushing plant in Saskatchewan
MINNEAPOLIS - Ceres Global Ag Corp.
has unveiled plans to build a $350 million
integrated canola processing facility in
Northgate, Sask. The facility will have
the capacity to process 1.1 million tonnes
of canola and refine more than 500,000
tonnes of canola oil, for both food and
fuel, annually, according to the company.
" This is an exciting time for Ceres
Global as we position ourselves to take
advantage of the unprecedented demand
for oilseed crush in North America, " said
Robert Day, president and chief executive
officer at Ceres. " While there are multiple
drivers contributing to this demand, the
12
MILLING & BAKING NEWS
most important is the movement toward
green energy and the need for vegetable
oil as feedstock for the production of
renewable diesel. We have been analyzing
canola crush at Northgate for several
years as its location along the Canada-US
border is ideally located to originate
canola seed from our farmer partners,
and with a direct connection to BNSF Railway,
it provides the most efficient access
to the US market and US ports. "
The facility is expected to be operational
by summer 2024.
" Demand for renewable diesel
feedstocks is rapidly growing, " said Jim
has served only the Canadian markets,
just introduced new flavors of Belgian
Waffles at Walmart stores.
" Aspire means to ascend, to soar, and
that's what we are aiming to do for our
customers and our business, " Ms. Prociv
said. " We want to continue to grow so
that we're exceeding our potential to
deliver high-quality baked goods to our
retail and foodservice customers and to
our loyal consumers who have played an
integral part in our evolution. " MBN
Titsworth, director of agricultural development
at BNSF Railway. " The BNSF network
is ideally suited to supply the production,
processing and distribution of these
feedstocks. A crush plant at Northgate,
Sask., will provide an important source
of canola oil to meet the growing demand.
Northgate has a unique location, both in
Canada's canola growing region and with
direct rail access to the major renewable
diesel and food processing markets via
BNSF's network. This allows Ceres-produced
canola oil to have an advantage in
this rapidly growing marketplace. "
Interest in canola processing facility
construction has been high in recent
months. In late April, both Viterra and
Cargill announced construction plans for
canola processing plants in Canada. MBN
bakingbusiness.com
OTIS SPUNKMEYER
http://www.bakingbusiness.com
Milling & Baking News - June 1, 2021

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