A Northwest Tradition

In late 1988, construction began on a new bakery in Sumner, Washington.  The foundation laid that wet, cold fall was not just concrete and iron, but it included the heart and soul of two family businesses with a combined baking history in the northwest of 159 years.  In Washington the Gai’s Family:  Giglio, Cecilia, Henry, Phil, and Rose, from Oregon the Franz family:  Englebert and his son Joseph.  The two families established the standard for baking excellence that has become a

Northwest Tradition.

Gai’s Bakeries in Seattle, Washington and Franz (United States) Bakeries in Portland, Oregon each began as small family ventures in the early 1900’s and through their unwavering commitment to bake products of the highest quality and steadfast dedication to premium customer service they thrived.  Our customer arrived on the Northwest scene in the early nineteen sixties and immediately chose Franz and Gai’s as their bun suppliers.  As the story grew throughout the world Gai’s and Franz continued their commitment to provide the highest quality products using modern techniques to keep their customer ahead in the ever growing quick serve food industry.  In fact, Franz bakery was the one of the first bun suppliers anywhere to utilize bulk packaging, and increased their throughput by running double six pocket dough dividers.  By 1987 growth in the northwest had reached a level where a single purpose bakery, one solely dedicated to the customers, made the most sense.  The two companies, competitors for many years, thought this to be the right time to combine their abundant talents and resources for the benefit of the customer.  The resulting partnership lead to the creation of:

PACIFIC NORTHWEST BAKING COMPANY

Starting with the first meeting the partners had one thing in mind;  build a bakery that would exceed all known industry expectations for efficiency, quality, cleanliness and service.  In July 1989 their vision became reality with the first production run.  PNWB served 244 stores that first year in five states:  Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington and produced approximately 10,000,000 dozen buns.  PNWB now serves 531 stores in six states (California) and produces over 20,000,000 dozen, almost 1/4 Billion buns, annually!!

“Gai's and Franz created and continued a NW tradition of highest quality and premium service for bread products.”

“PNWB produces over    20,000,000 dozen buns per year, almost 1/4 Billion buns.”

Contact us:

Pacific Northwest Baking Company

1307 Puyallup Street

Sumner, WA 98390

Phone: 253-863-0373

Toll Free: 877-778-BUNS (2867)

Fax: 253-863-2032

email:  lynn_miller@pnwb.com