Baking&Snack - March 2013 - 16

Hearthside to bolster cracker production
Hearthside Food Solutions, Downers
Grove, IL, said it will invest $6 million
to renovate and add 8,600 sq ft to its
180,000-sq-ft facility in Michigan City,
IN. The expansion will create up to 51
new jobs by 2016 and include the installation of equipment to allow the company
to produce a cracker-based product. This
equipment is expected to be operational
by this spring.
Hearthside currently has more than
400 full-time employees in Michigan

City and plans to begin hiring additional
machine operators in March.
Formed in 2009, Hearthside contract
manufactures grain-based food and
snack products. The company operates
13 facilities in six states with a base of
more than 5,000 employees. Its product line includes bars, cookies, crackers, granola, pretzels and other baked
snack components.
— Eric Schroeder, managing editor,
Milling & Baking News

AIB taps former Sara Lee exec as new president
Andre Biane was selected as the new
president and CEO of AIB International,
Manhattan, KS, by its board of directors.
He will succeed James Munyon, who is retiring after heading AIB for the past eight
years. Mr. Biane was selected following a
five-month nationwide search.
Mr. Biane has more than 30 years of experience in the food industry, including
quality systems implementation, technology translation, strategic planning, organization design and leadership. He most
recently was a consultant with ABusiness
Solutions LLC, Sandia Park, NM.
Earlier, he was vice-president of product development at Sara Lee from 2005 to
2008, where he helped launch multiple Sara
Lee fresh bakery products, including Soft &
Smooth White with Whole Grains. From
2001 to 2005, he served as vice-president of
R&D and quality at Sara Lee, where he was

Biane

/ Baking & Snack / March 2013

Canada Bread, Toronto, is closing
two baking plants in Grand Falls,
NB, and Edmonton, AB, during
the year. The Grand Falls plant
manufactures cake products, sweet
goods and English muffins. The
company will discontinue cake and
sweet goods production and move
English muffin production to another plant. The Edmonton bakery
produces raisin bread, garlic bread
and foodservice products.
D’Ambrosio Bakery, the Philadelphia producer and distributor of
specialty Italian-style bread, ceased
operations.
Chicago-based Newly Weds Foods,
Inc. selected Erlanger, KY, as the location for a new 325,000-sq-ft plant.
Caravan Ingredients, Lenexa, KS,
launched a corporate rebranding,
including an updated logo and new
advertising focusing on the baking
and food industries.

Munyon
responsible for Sara Lee and Earth Grains
retail bakery and store-brand refrigerated
dough, new products, cost-reduction applications and improvement of operating
quality systems, including food safety.
Mr. Biane was vice-president of R&D
and quality at Earthgrains Co. from 1998
to 2001 and director of total quality at the
company from 1996 to 1997.
Prior to joining Earthgrains he was director of total quality at Eagle Snacks, Inc.
from 1994 to 1995 and earlier spent 10
years at Anheuser-Busch Cos., St. Louis,
MO, as manager of total quality and business development. He was a winemaker
with California Growers Winery from
1979 to 1981.
Mr. Biane is a past co-chair of the American
Bakers Association’s biotech subcommittee.

Chicago Metallic Bakeware-Bundy
Baking Solutions, Urbana, OH,
acquired Lockwood Manufacturing,
a Brandtford, ON-based supplier of
aluminum equipment.
The American Bakers Association’s
annual convention will take place
April 21-24 at the Turnberry Isle
Resort, Aventura, FL. To register,
visit www.americanbakers.org.
A US District Court judge in
February denied a motion filed by
Grupo Bimbo, Mexico City, that
would have temporarily suspended
Thomasville, GA-based Flowers
Foods’ pending acquisition of the
Sara Lee and Earthgrain brands
in California from Grupo Bimbo.
The acquisition was completed in
February, according to Flowers
Foods.

www.bakingandsnack.com

http://www.americanbakers.org http://www.bakingandsnack.com

Baking&Snack - March 2013

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