Industry Food processing Founded 1906 | Website www.usbakery.com/ Type of business Privately held company | |
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Headquarters Portland, Oregon, United States Founders Joe Franz, Englebert Franz Profiles | ||
United States Bakery, better known as Franz Family Bakeries, is a bread and pastry manufacturer headquartered in Portland, Oregon. Franz Bakery was founded in 1906. U.S. Bakery also owns the Northwest regional bread brands Williams', Gai's, and Snyder's.
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History
In collaboration with E. E. Franz of Franz Bakery, W.P. Yaw of Yaw's Top Notch Restaurant invented the 5-inch (130 mm) diameter hamburger bun in the late 1920s. Though others are credited with creating a bread product to use for the first hamburgers known to the world, Franz is credited for inventing the hamburger bun in its current worldwide accepted form.
Acquisitions
United States Bakery has a long history of growth through acquisition.
In 2006, the Williams' factory, which had operated on the same site near the University of Oregon (UO) since 1908, was closed and the site sold to the UO, which as of 2007 planned to use it as the location of a new basketball arena. Williams' relocated to a new plant in the Glenwood area of neighboring Springfield. It was the first new bakery the firm had built from the ground up since 1906.
In 2013, United States Bakery paid $28.85 million for Hostess' Sweetheart, Eddy's, Standish Farms, and Grandma Emilie's brands.
Guinness World Record
In July 2006, Franz baked a hot dog bun 104 feet 9.5 inches (31.941 m) long, breaking the Guinness World Record for the World's longest hot dog. The previous record was just over 57 feet (17 m) and set in 2005.