Gold Standard Baking makes 12 million croissants every week, and it’s still not enough. Despite upgrading production lines and expanding operations at its high-speed bakery on the South Side of Chicago, the rapidly growing company finally began to reach its limit two years ago. That’s when the pastry manufacturer embarked on a long-term solution to build a second bakery and position the company for a golden era of prosperity.
Today, at its new 200,000-square-foot facility in Pleasant Prairie, Wis., Gold Standard is ramping up production on one of the largest croissant lines in the nation that will turn out 42,000 fully baked pastries an hour. Moreover, the company already plans to install a second line in early 2018.
Eventually, most likely in five years or less, Gold Standard Baking expects to invest more than $42 million to install up to five lines with 300 employees and see upwards of $200 million in annual sales, noted Yianny Caparos, the company’s president, in an exclusive feature in the July issue of Baking & Snack magazine. Mr. Caparos hopes the Wisconsin bakery will alleviate some of the pressure on the jam-packed 187,000-square-foot, Chicago operation, which produces 225 products on three croissant and two sweet goods lines.
That said, that relief is likely to be short-lived with his brother, George Caparos, vice-president of sales, and a skilled management team taking the business to another level.
“George already has a pipeline of new business to come on board,” Yianny Caparos pointed out. “It won’t put us at an overcapacity position like today, but it will put us in a very comfortable position in operations.”
