The continued rise and expansion of Omaha's James Skinner Baking Co. has remained sweet even during the hardest of economic times.
During the recession, the company added equipment that company officials bought at a discount after they found it disassembled in semitrailers in Chicago. The company added jobs when most other firms were slashing payrolls. And, as the economy remained sour, the company launched new products.
After operating for decades as a maker of Danish pastries, coffee cakes, muffins and other sweet bakery items for other companies like Sara Lee, General Mills, Otis Spunkmeyer and private-label customers and food-service providers, the company's brass at the end of 2009 rolled out its own branded line of products after years of having the move blocked by a major customer.
Those J. Skinner-branded products are helping Skinner gain market share in a grocery category that is treading water. During the 52-week period that ended June 12, overall category sales were flat, but sales of the J. Skinner products increased 15.3 percent, according to market research data from the Chicago firm SymphonyIRI.
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