December 8, 2015

After acquiring two organic companies earlier this year, Flowers' Alabama plant will be going organic. Flowers Baking Co. of Tuscaloosa, a subsidiary of Flowers Foods, will start baking organic bread in the spring of 2016; Tuscaloosa will be the company’s first organic-only baking plant in the east.

Production is expected to stop for close to three months in early 2016 as Flowers is expected to invest close to $8 million on a new production line at the Tuscaloosa plant. Once the factory opens, it will bake Dave’s Killer Bread and Alpine Valley Bread, the two organic brands Flowers acquired in 2015.

The Tuscaloosa plant currently markets products under the Nature’s Own, Sunbeam and Tastykake brands and employs close to 225 employees. It’s expected that employment at the bakery will be roughly the same when production restarts as an organic bakery.

Learn more about Flowers Foods acquiring Dave’s Killer Bread and its acquisition of Alpine Valley Bread Company.