bake - January 2012 - 10

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The Passing of a Bakery Legend

sold the business to Emrich Baking Company where he stayed on as head of retail operations. After a few years with Emrich Baking, Burt saw an opportunity to open instore bakeries in the new Target stores being developed by Dayton’s Department Stores in the Twin Cities. He resigned from Emrich, acquired his family’s trade name and was in business again with his ﬁrst two bakeries in the Knollwood and Crystal Target stores. By 1972, there were more than 35 Target Stores with instore McGlynn’s bakery departments.

he wore many hats during his more than half-century career in the bakery business. None ﬁt quite as uniquely as the cap he wore as the Trav’l Bake bus driver in 1954. It was then McGlynn Bakeries introduced one of the many clever innovations tried over the years by this Minneapolis family business, The Trav’l Bake bus was quite a sight to see in the ‘50s, chugging along the streets of the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park and delivering hot donuts and freshly baked bread to local neighborhoods. The Ford bus was retroﬁtted with an electric donut fryer, along with an electric oven.

Burt McGlynn, chairman of DecoPac, Inc., passed away Dec. 23 at his home in Florida. McGlynn, former chairman of McGlynn Bakeries, was a true example of a Minnesota entrepreneur. For more than 50 years, he played a vital role within the familyrun business, and, at each stage, recognized opportunities that took the company to new levels. Minnesotans were ﬁrst introduced to McGlynn Bakeries in 1919, when it was founded by Burt’s father, James T. “J.T.” McGlynn. Burt’s career began in the family business, working in his father’s bakery at age 15 as a cleaner. He later ﬁlled in for bakers when they were on vacations, drove delivery trucks on wholesale routes and waited on customers at the service counter. During World War II, Burt attended a school for cooks and bakers in New Orleans and served as a baker in the Navy, stationed in the Philippines. After the war, Burt returned to Minnesota to help run his father’s growing bakery business, which, at the time, had 11 downtown shops and several wholesale routes. Burt purchased the company from his father in 1956, and two years later Burt graduated from DeLaSalle High School, attended Dunwoody Institute and received an honorary Doctorate of Philanthropy degree from St. Mary’s University, Winona. Along with his wife, Rosalyn, Burt supported numerous charities. He was a member of The Minneapolis Club, Interlachen Country Club, Lafayette Club, The Sanctuary Golf Club, and Captiva Island Yacht Club. In a proﬁle of Burt McGlynn in the January 2009 issue of Baking Buyer, Burt explained how The remaining family business, DecoPac, Inc. is the largest marketer of cake decorations to professional cake decorators in the world. DecoPac, Inc. currently employs more than 500 people in the U.S. and England with annual revenues over $125 million. The business changed and expanded greatly over the next few decades. It entered the frozen bakery products business, and eventually sold that business in 1992 to Pillsbury. Another frozen bakery products business was begun in 1995 and sold in 2004 to Ralcorp Holdings, Inc. Bakery plants were constructed in Eden Prairie, Chanhassen and Fridley.

Another instrumental stretch in Burt McGlynn’s career occurred in the early 1960s when Dayton’s Department Stores were developing a new retail concept, a discount store named Target. In 1962, McGlynn resigned from Emrich Baking Company and opened his ﬁrst two bakeries in the Knollwood and Crystal Target Stores. Through association with Applebaum’s and Target in the early 1960s, the business expanded to Duluth, Denver, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Tulsa, St. Louis, and Milwaukee, in addition to growth in the Twin Cities. The ﬁrst instore bakeries at Target produced bread, pies, cakes and donuts. Soon, they discovered a lucrative opportunity by decorating cakes on-site. The experiment set the stage for nationwide popularity of decorated cakes. Burt was always on the cutting edge of innovation. Burt is survived by four sons, one (Mike McGlynn, DecoPac’s CEO) of whom works in the family business, a daughter, 16 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren. Like the baked goods his company made, Burt was made up of the perfect ingredients to be the best.

10 < JAN 2012 | bakemag.com

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bake - January 2012

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