Flowers Foods Licenses Rights to Wonder, Home Pride

Flowers Foods Inc. has signed an agreement giving Fort Wayne, Ind.-based Aunt Millie’s Bakeries the exclusive license to produce and market Wonder and Home Pride breads in northwest Indiana; northern Illinois, including Chicago; and southern Wisconsin. Terms and conditions of the license agreement weren’t disclosed.

Under the agreement, Wonder and Home Pride breads will shortly return to store shelves in those markets after an absence since the November 2012 shutdown of Old HB Inc. (formerly Hostess Brands).

Welcome Back, Brands

“Aunt Millie’s …produces quality fresh bakery foods and has a great distribution network,” noted Allen L. Shiver, president and CEO of Thomasville, Ga.-based Flowers. “This agreement allows us to bring these well-known and well-loved bread brands, baked with the same recipes, back to consumers in this part of the Midwest.”

Flowers acquired the Wonder, Home Pride, Merita and Butternut brands in July 2013. In September of that year,  the company reintroduced Wonder and the other brands to its direct-store-delivery market, which reaches about 79 percent of the U.S. population in the East, South, Southwest and California.

Flowers operates bakeries across the country that produce a wide range of bakery products, including such top brands as Nature’s Own and Tastykake.