Wave of Innovation
Through changes and challenges, a new chapter emerges for the La Brea Bakery, Otis Spunkmeyer and Oakrun Farm brands. BY J OA N I E S PEN C ER
The pandemic halted foodservice, shut down schools and sparked a massive home-baking trend. But it didn’t slow down La Brea Bakery and Otis Spunkmeyer — two major Los Angeles-based brands alongside their Ontario, Canada-based sister brand, Oakrun Farm Bakery — as a new chapter opens under their newly formed parent company, Chicago-based Aspire Bakeries, formerly known as ARYZTA North America.
Aspire Bakeries CEO. “We are focused on our people, our customers and our supply chain, and it’s all about growth.” Long before the acquisition, these brands were navigating some serious consumer changes induced by COVID-19 and the subsequent impact on restaurants, schools and businesses. Despite the massive disruptions, innovation was never locked down at Aspire Bakeries, which also has offices in Los Angeles and Ontario.
innovation and R&D. And those shifts — some pandemic-induced, others happening prior to 2020 — are playing a role in how the company and its brands look at innovation.
As the country embarks on a comeback, the brands are riding waves of change, growth and innovation under new backing from investor Lindsay Goldberg.
And that innovation has ensured the company is closing out its fiscal year strong as ever.
“Overall, we think about innovation in two different segments,” Prociv said. “The first is customer-led, as we have strong partnerships with our strategic customers and work collaboratively with them to develop innovation. We also have a separate path that we started about two years ago, where we’re leading innovation, inspired by research to identify consumer insights, that we can bring to our customers.”
“While our strategies, our go-to-market won’t change, we are writing a new chapter, and we as an organization will determine what that looks like,” said Tyson Yu,
“There have been seismic shifts in terms of what we’ve seen in how people purchase and consume food,” said Chris Prociv, Aspire Bakeries senior VP of marketing,
This proactive approach to innovation positioned the company to move forward despite pandemic-induced setbacks. For example, Aspire Bakeries focuses on three
Photo courtesy of @otis_spunkmeyer on Twitter.com
When schools shut down, consumers clamored for Otis Spunkmeyer cookies, which led to the company selling the beloved product on Amazon.
JUNE 2021 NEW PRODUCTS ANNUAL
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