Bakewise sold to Yamazaki

Ancor Capital Partners and Merit Capital Partners have sold the Macedon, New York-based Bakewise Brands to Japan’s largest bread-baking corporation Yamazaki Baking Co, headquartered in Tokyo. Yamazaki also distributes its baked products in a number of Asian countries like Singapore and Malaysia.

Merit and Ancor established Bakewise Brands in 2010 as the corporate identity for Fleischer’s Bagels, Inc, which they acquired in 2005, and Tom Cat Bakery, which they acquired in 2008. Fleischer’s, based in Macedon, New York, was founded in 1971, and Tom Cat, operating in Long Island City, New York, was established in 1987.

"We have enjoyed a long relationship with the Bakewise team, and we are extremely proud of the culture established and embraced by the management team and employees,” said Ray Kingsbury, managing director of Ancor. “Bakewise Brands today offers a portfolio of 400 products and 65 years of combined bakery experience, and it is a trusted bakery solutions provider offering a variety of branded and private label programmes to premier retail and foodservice operators throughout the US, Canada and the Caribbean.”

Terry Shipp, managing director of Merit Capital, said: “We are proud of the significant accomplishments of Bakewise and its leadership position as a leading manufacturer and distributor of fresh, frozen and refrigerated bagel products.”

Shipp continued: “The strong emphasis on product quality, food safety and rapid new product development has been a positive differentiator of our products in the market.”

He adds that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Tom Cat Bakery, has served the handmade artisan bread needs of Metro NYC’s finest white-table-cloth restaurants, luxury hotels and bakery cafés for more than 20 years, and now distributes its most popular artisan breads nationwide through a network of specialty frozen distributors.

Yamazaki Baking also operates it own stores — convenience stores and bakeshops, the latter of which sell products made on- and off-site.