Lancaster Colony, a US food group, has ceased production of its bakery brands Flatout and Angelic Bakehouse, and closed the facilities where these products were manufactured.
The decision to shut down the Flatout facility in Saline, Michigan, and the Angelic Bakehouse facility in Cudahy, Wisconsin, has affected approximately 80 employees. Confirmation of these closures has been sought from Lancaster Colony by Just Food.
In a statement accompanying the release of its fiscal third-quarter financial results, Lancaster Colony’s CEO David Ciesinski disclosed that production of these brands came to a halt in March.
Ciesinski explained, “After evaluating our product portfolio, we made the challenging choice to discontinue our perimeter-of-the-store bakery product lines, specifically our Flatout and Angelic Bakehouse brands, which did not significantly contribute to our overall financial performance.”
He elaborated, “Both brands were typically found in the deli section of grocery stores, offering products such as Flatout flatbread wraps and pizza crusts, and Angelic Bakehouse sprouted grain bread loaves and wraps.”
Ciesinski further noted, “Unfortunately, due to insufficient scale and a lack of direct-to-store distribution capabilities, we were unable to achieve the desired operational or financial performance for these product lines.”