Flowers to Acquire Home Baking

Flowers Industries, Inc. (Thomasville, GA) has announced that its Flowers Bakeries subsidiary has reached a definitive agreement to acquire all the stock of Home Baking Company, Inc. (Birmingham, AL). The transaction will be completed within the next few weeks. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Home Baking Company, based in Birmingham, Ala., has annual sales of approximately $15 million and serves major foodservice accounts in the southeastern U.S. and Caribbean basin, according to Amos McMullian, chairman of the board and CEO of Flowers Industries.

"Home Baking Company has an excellent manufacturing facility that will integrate well into Flowers Bakeries' manufacturing network and give us needed foodservice bun capacity," McMullian said. "This acquisition highlights the opportunities we see in the foodservice market for all of Flowers Industries—including Flowers Bakeries, Mrs. Smith's and Keebler Foods."

Ernest Stevens, president of Home Baking Company, added, "We are pleased for our shareholders to have reached this agreement with Flowers and we are especially pleased that our employees will become a part of Flowers Bakeries."