Georgia’s Flowers Foods purchased Tasty Baking Co., a 97-year-old Philadelphia staple, Monday, orchestrating a deal that will total more than $165 million. A baked goods manufacturer, Flowers bought the struggling enterprise for $4 a share. Tasty’s outstanding 8.6 million shares bring the acquisition’s tag to $34.4 million, with more than $131 million in debt accounting for the transaction’s sum.
The agreement will make Tasty part of its partner’s direct-store-delivery business and extend its long-lauded line of products to the Southeast and Southwest parts of the country. The sale, which should close sometime during the year’s second quarter, will likely not mean any reduction in Tasty’s 740-employee workforce or 413-member roster of independent sales distributors, Flowers’ chairman and CEO George Deese said in a press release. It also will keep open Tasty’s plants in Chester County and the 11-month-old facility at 3 Crescent Dr. in The Philadelphia Navy Yard.
“This merger with Flowers will create value for Tasty’s shareholders, employees and the Philadelphia community,” Tasty’s CEO Charles P. Pizzi said in a news release. “We believe the combination of Tasty with Flowers will create a company with long-term advantages for our employees, customers, suppliers, independent sales distributors and other constituents.”
South Philadelphia has become a little sweeter, thanks to Charles P. Pizzi, the president and chief executive officer of Tasty Baking Co. May 4 marked the official grand opening of the company’s 345,000-square-foot facility 4. Pizzi brought products that have reigned as area staples since the company debuted in 1914 to the Philadelphia Navy Yard. His ingenuity also will allow South Philadelphia to become a key location in an environmental revolution.
Ten years ago this month, the Philadelphia Industrial Development Corp., (PIDC) acquired the Navy Yard site in the hopes of ushering in a new era on such historic grounds. As the saying goes, history has a way of repeating itself.
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