We have some important news to share with our fans. For the past nine years, we have worked hard to earn your trust and support, and we can’t thank you enough for believing in us to bake the best gluten-free bread we can. We are looking forward to reaching more gluten-free fans as we grow in the years to come and we plan to do so with a new partner. We have entered into an agreement to be acquired by Flowers Foods. This deal will take some time to close, but we wanted to share more information with you. And, most importantly, we want to reassure you that what you love about Canyon Bakehouse will stay the same.
We totally understand that there are going to be mixed emotions about this announcement. We want to reassure you that many things, and truly the most important things, will remain the same. And, we hope to surprise you with some things that will be even better. We’ve outlined a few things below that we hope will reassure you that what you love about Canyon will continue to delight you.
First, our breads will continue to be baked by our existing beloved bakers in our brand new dedicated gluten-free bakery in Johnstown, Colorado. For those of you who don’t know, we opened a state-of-the art gluten-free bakery in January 2018 because we wanted to ensure that our expanding line of gluten-free options could all be made by our team in-house without using co-packers. With all of our new launches from Heritage loaves to Stay Fresh options like Hawaiian Sweet Bread to our new English Muffins, we recognized a couple of years ago that we would rapidly outgrow our first bakery, so we started to build a new one where our entire team could work together and that bakery opened early this year. We also wanted to ensure that we had plenty of space to create brand new gluten-free options like our new English Muffins which required new baking equipment. And, we as you can imagine, we have many more fun ideas to come.
Second, and this is very much related to our dedicated bakery, our commitment to safety is unwavering. Safety has always been a top concern at Canyon Bakehouse. Our co-founder Christi Skow was diagnosed with Celiac in 2007, so safety is very personal for all of us. Our bakery is dedicated gluten-free – so that means that no gluten products ever enter the building. And, we test all of our ingredients for gluten both in-house and via an independent 3rd party lab. With a zero gluten standard, our 3rdparty test results are “undetectable” or below 5 parts per million. This attention to detail is carried through every element when we are creating new tasty options as well. When we first decided to make a gluten-free honey oat bread, one of our biggest concerns was ensuring that our oats were completely safe from cross-contamination. So, we researched suppliers extensively and opted to buy our oats from the company that created the gluten-free oat purity protocol. They do not process or work with any gluten containing ingredients and follow strict guidelines to ensure that they are clean throughout their entire supply chain from seed stock to farmers and equipment, facility, handling and inspections. They govern their process very seriously and are third-party certified and inspected by Celiac Sprue Association (CSA) and Gluten Intolerance Group (GIG). These are the kinds of details that we sweat each and every day to ensure we deliver safe and delicious gluten-free baked goods to our fans. This will not change. Both Christi Skow and her husband Josh will remain very involved as brand amabassadors and Josh will continue leading our good work as President of Canyon Bakehouse.
Third, Flowers Foods is an established baking company with a 100 year history of baking gluten breads and operating other favorite brands like Nature’s Own and Dave’s Killer Bread. Their entire portfolio is breads baked with gluten. Gluten-free is new territory for them. They recognize that gluten-free breads and gluten-free consumers are very important; yet, baking gluten-free bread is very different. One of the reasons they are interested in acquiring Canyon Bakehouse is because we have cracked the code on baking delicious and nutritious gluten-free baked goods. We strongly believe that you can’t bake gluten-free breads in a traditional bakery. You must invest in a dedicated gluten-free bakery with all of the safety protocols and baking equipment required to bake breads that are every bit as tasty as traditional gluten breads. Flowers understands this commitment and they are excited to support our team in continuing to bake all of our favorites while adding new ideas to the mix. We are looking forward to their powerful distribution arm, which has the ability to deliver Canyon Bakehouse to so many more retailers and possibly even restaurants around the country and perhaps the world. They can not only help us get into more stores but also help us get favorite products that are harder to find into more of your preferred stores.
But, don’t just take our word for it. We hope you will come along for the journey with us. We have worked hard to earn your trust and your business over the past nine years and have every intention of thrilling you with what is yet to come.