Lender's Bagels

Lender's Bagels is a brand of bagels that pioneered the pre-packaged bagel industry in the United States. Established in 1927 in New Haven, Connecticut, by the Lender family, it became a North American leader in the marketing, distribution and sales of bagels. Lender's introduced frozen bagels and sold the first packaged bagels in supermarkets, eventually becoming the world's biggest bagel producer. The company was sold to Kraft Foods in 1984. In 2003, it became part of Pinnacle Foods. In 1994 it began production of room-temperature fresh bagels. In 2012, Lender's revenue was about $70 million.

In 2018 Pinnacle foods was sold to Conagra, which then sold Lender's Bagels out of Pinnacle to Bimbo Bakery.

History

Beginnings

Lender's Bagel Bakery was established by Harry Lender, a Jewish baker originally from Chelm, Poland. He had immigrated to the United States from Lublin in August 1927. His surname is a transliteration of the Yiddish word meaning "countryman" or "person living in a rural area" (cf. modern German Länder).[1]

New processes lead to growth

By the mid-1950s, the logistics of producing as many as 6,000 bagels for sale on Sunday morning, in contrast to relatively low activity the rest of the week, began to demand a solution. As a result, in 1954 Lender perfected a method of freezing the bagels, so that the labor could be spread more evenly throughout the week.[4] He kept this process a secret, but after two years, the bakery accidentally delivered frozen bagels, and the secret was revealed. Customers were initially angry, but were won over, when they realized that these were the same bagels they had been satisfied with for the previous two years. The New York Bagel Bakery started to market the frozen bagels, including delivery outside New Haven, for instance to resorts in the Catskills that were popular among Jews.[2]

Lender developed further refinements, such as pre-slicing the bagels and packing them in polyethylene bags to keep them fresh after thawing. The bakery began selling the packaged frozen bagels in supermarkets. To introduce bagels to an unfamiliar public, the Lender family would prepare and distribute them in supermarket aisles. The plastic bagged, frozen six pack of pre-sliced Lender's Frozen Bagels began to gain market share, and by 1959 supermarket sales accounted for half of the sales.[5] His business created new varieties of bagels, and production was switched to rotary ovens, rather than the labor-intensive open, flat ovens.[2]

In 1960, Harry Lender died. His sons Sam and Murray, who had been running the bakery with him, continued. (The oldest son Hyman had previously left the family business.) When youngest son Marvin graduated from college, he became a partner as well, and shortly thereafter Sam retired. The two brothers teamed up to expand operations, with Marvin managing the bakery and Murray in charge of sales.[2]

In 1963 the Lenders leased the very first Thompson Bagel Machine, invented by Daniel T. Thompson. Until then, according to Thompson: "Sam Lender mixed the bagel dough and one man cut it into small slabs and fed it into an Italian breadstick machine. The Italian breadstick machine made bagel dough strips that were then distributed to workstations where six to eight men rolled them by hand into bagels. With this system they averaged 50 dozen bagels per hour per man. The first Thompson machine, with three unskilled workers, was able to do the work of eight skilled workers.[6]"

New ownership

In the spring of 1984, the Lender family sold Lender's Frozen Bagels to Kraft Foods, with the stipulation that Marvin would remain president and Murray spokesman for the next two years. Murray Lender publicized the sale in characteristic form, by holding "the marriage of the century", with Murray and Marvin escorting a 6 ft Lender’s Bagel, "Len", down the aisle to meet his new bride, "Phyl", a Kraft Philadelphia brand cream cheese.[2] In 1987, Lender's had three plants in West Haven, a plant in New Haven, one in Buffalo, New York, and one in Mattoon, Illinois;[14] the last is the site of the annual "Bagelfest", and also the only surviving Lender's Bagel plant in operation today.[15] Kraft, which reportedly spent $12 to $15 million annually to advertise Lender's bagels,[16] sold the company to Kellogg Company in 1996 for $455 million. Analysts criticized Kellogg's investment in a frozen product at a time when the popularity of fresh bagels was rising. Kellogg's introduced a $20 million television campaign for Lender's in Fall 1997.[17] In October 1999, Kellogg's sold the business to San Francisco based Aurora Foods for $275 million,[18] and ceased production at the New Haven factory in March 2000.[19] In 2003, Aurora was bought by Pinnacle Foods, a subsidiary of the Blackstone Group since 2007.[20]

As of 2013, the Lender's Bagels brand is in production with a wide variety of bagels, including a Healthy Grain bagel brand containing more dietary fiber and protein than the company’s other bagels.[21] In 2011, Lender’s revenue was $40.9 million from the sale of 23.4 million six-bagel packages,[22] $12.7 million from the sale of 7.6 million units of frozen bagels, and $28.2 million from the sale of 15.8 million units of refrigerated bagels. According to SymphonyIRI Group, a Chicago-based market research firm, Lender’s is the top selling brand in each segment.[23] In 2012, Lender's Bagels sales increased to more than $70 million.[21]

In May 2012, Consumer Reports magazine rated Lender's Original as one of the best bagels sold by American fast-food chains and grocery stores,[24] an assessment criticized by many commentators – especially in New York – who argued that only fresh bagels are real bagels.[25]

type	Bagels
currentowner	Bimbo Bakeries USA (Grupo Bimbo)
introduced	1927 in New Haven, Connecticut
previousowners	Kraft (1984–1996) Kellogg's (1996–1999) Aurora Food (1999–2003) Pinnacle Foods (2003–2018) Conagra Brands (2018–2020)
website	http://www.lendersbagels.com

History

Beginnings

New processes lead to growth

Large-scale expansion

Marketing

New ownership

See also

Further reading

External links

References