Angel Bakeries

Angel Bakeries, also known as Angel’s Bakery, is a Jerusalem-based Israeli commercial bakery founded in 1927 by Salomon Angel. It developed from a neighborhood bakery into one of Israel’s largest producers of staple baked goods and remains associated with the Angel family across several generations. The company’s principal business is the manufacture and distribution of bread and related products, supplemented by cakes, cookies, pastries, rolls, pitas, challah, specialty breads, crackers and partially baked products. The company serves the Israeli mass market through company-owned outlets, supermarkets, independent stores, hotels, military bases and food-service customers. Reference material describes a network of 32 company-owned outlets, distribution to approximately 6,000 stores and supply relationships with hundreds of hotels and army bases. Angel also exports selected products to the United States, United Kingdom, France, Belgium and Denmark. Its industrial footprint has included plants in Jerusalem, Kfar HaHoresh, Lod, Netivot and Beit Shemesh, with different locations serving regional bread demand or specializing in cakes and pastries. Angel’s history is closely tied to production modernization. The business introduced automated weighing, large industrial ovens, flour-handling infrastructure, sliced bread, soy-flour bread and other baking technologies to the Israeli market. It also developed vegetable-based emulsifiers to support kosher production and expanded into whole-wheat, multigrain, fiber-enriched, reduced-calorie, vitamin-fortified and organic products. In 2002, it added parbaked and flash-frozen products such as pita, challah, rolls, ciabatta, artisan breads and pizza bases, allowing customers or retailers to complete baking later. The bakery has maintained distinctive religious and cultural operating practices. It closes for Shabbat, Jewish holidays and Passover week, and manages Passover inventory in accordance with Jewish law. Its products have been associated with kosher certification from the Edah HaChareidis and Orthodox Union. The business also produces regulated price-controlled bread for lower-income consumers. Angel became the first Israeli bakery to list on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange in 1984, although the reference material describes it as continuing to operate as a family business. The company has historically employed a large workforce and has included Israeli, Palestinian and immigrant workers. Its public profile has also been shaped by the Angel family’s civic presence in Jerusalem, particularly that of Danny Angel. In 2020, the United Nations listed Angel Bakeries in a database concerning companies conducting business connected with Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and the occupied Golan Heights. In 2023, the company faced a religious-community boycott campaign after board chairman Omer Bar-Lev participated in a protest outside the home of a prominent Haredi rabbi. The available material does not establish the boycott’s definitive commercial outcome or the company’s present management structure.

Angel Bakeries began in Jerusalem in 1927 when Salomon Angel took over the bankrupt Trachtenberg Bakery in Bayit VeGan. He settled the bakery’s debts and brought his father Avraham and three brothers into the business. Two brothers later established a separate bakery in Haifa, while Salomon expanded and modernized the Jerusalem operation. By the 1930s, the bakery employed about 25 people and produced thousands of loaves daily, distributing them by trucks and horse-drawn wagon. During the Second World War it supplied bread to the British army and acquired large American ovens. The bakery played a logistical role during the 1948 war, when Jerusalem faced shortages of water, flour and other supplies. It supplied bread to defenders in the Old City and on Mount Scopus. Family recollections also describe the concealment of weapons and ammunition in bread sacks, although these wartime accounts are presented in the reference material as historical recollections rather than as a separately documented corporate program. In the 1950s, Salomon’s sons Avraham, Ovadia and Danny assumed management responsibilities. After Salomon’s death in 1966, the brothers served as co-chief executives. In 1958 the company moved to its current industrial location in Givat Shaul, near a flour mill. It built Israel’s first flour silo and installed a long pipeline to move flour directly from the mill into the bakery. The company later introduced long ovens, industrial kneading equipment, sliced bread and soy-flour bread. It also developed vegetable-based emulsifiers to replace animal fats that were unsuitable for kosher production. Angel expanded its product and geographic base from the 1980s onward. It opened a factory store beside the Givat Shaul plant in 1984, began producing cakes and pastries in a dedicated Jerusalem facility, and became the first Israeli bakery to list on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange. During the 1990s it built or acquired additional facilities, including a Lod bakery opened in 1995 and the Tuv Tam bakery in Netivot acquired in 1999. Its network came to include plants in Jerusalem, Kfar HaHoresh, Lod, Netivot and Beit Shemesh. Product development broadened beyond conventional white bread. Angel introduced whole-wheat and multigrain products, breads with added fiber, reduced-calorie and vitamin-fortified formulas, and organic items. In 2002 it introduced parbaked and flash-frozen pita, challah, rolls, ciabatta, artisan breads and pizza bases. The company also operates within Israel’s regulated bread market, producing price-controlled varieties for lower-income consumers. Its distribution system has been described as computerized and just-in-time, supporting deliveries to retail, hospitality, military and food-service customers. Angel has supplied Domino’s Pizza in Israel and has been described as the sole hamburger-bun supplier to McDonald’s restaurants in Israel. The business remains identified with multigenerational family management. Salomon’s grandchildren entered management in the 1980s, with family members associated with finance, production, technology and company direction. Danny Angel became the company’s best-known public representative and received Jerusalem civic and industrial honors. The Jerusalem municipality named a nearby intersection Shlomo Angel Square. More recent public controversies include Angel’s inclusion in a 2020 United Nations settlement-related database and a 2023 boycott campaign connected to board chairman Omer Bar-Lev’s participation in a protest involving a senior Haredi rabbi. Current ownership details, management appointments and operating figures require verification from up-to-date corporate sources.

• 2023

  Religious boycott campaign

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  A boycott campaign was called after chairman Omer Bar-Lev participated in a protest involving a prominent Haredi rabbi; some yeshivas reportedly ended contracts with the company.

• 2020

  Included in United Nations settlement-related database

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  The United Nations listed Angel Bakeries in a database concerning business activities connected with Israeli settlements in occupied territories.

• 2002

  Parbaked product range launched

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  Angel introduced flash-frozen parbaked pita, challah, rolls, ciabatta, artisan breads and pizza bases.

• 1999

  Tuv Tam acquisition

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  Angel acquired the Tuv Tam bakery in Netivot as part of its geographic and product diversification.

• 1995

  Lod bakery opened

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  The company built a bakery in Lod to serve central Israel and the Gush Dan region.

• 1984

  Public listing and factory store

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  Angel became the first Israeli bakery to go public on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and opened a landmark factory store beside its Jerusalem plant.

• 1965

  Sliced bread and soy-flour bread introduced

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  The company introduced Israel’s first sliced bread and bread containing soy flour, alongside new industrial ovens and kneading machinery.

• 1958

  Move to Givat Shaul

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  Angel moved to its Givat Shaul industrial site and built a flour silo connected to a nearby mill by pipeline.

• 1930

  Early industrial expansion

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  By the 1930s, the bakery had about 25 employees, one production line and daily output of approximately 8,500 loaves.

• 1927

  Salomon Angel takes over a Jerusalem bakery

  [1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  Salomon Angel assumed ownership of the bankrupt Trachtenberg Bakery in Bayit VeGan and established the business that became Angel Bakeries.

A large-scale Israeli staple-bakery brand combining mass-market distribution, industrial production, kosher compliance and a broad range of everyday and specialty baked goods.

• Staple bakery products

  Bread

  Angel’s core category includes white and dark-white sliced bread, whole-wheat and multigrain loaves, breads with added grains or dietary fiber, reduced-calorie and vitamin-fortified varieties, and regulated price-controlled bread. The company is also associated with early Israeli introductions of sliced bread and soy-flour bread. Specific current formulas and market shares are not established here.

• Flatbreads and rolls

  Pita and rolls

  The range includes pita bread, rolls, buns and challah for household, retail and food-service use. Angel has operated high-volume pita and roll production and has supplied buns to major restaurant customers in Israel. Some formats are sold as parbaked or frozen products for later finishing.

• Sweet bakery and pastry · 1984

  Cakes, cookies and pastries

  Angel produces cakes, cookies, muffins, bourekas, danishes and handmade pastries through its broader bakery network, including a Beit Shemesh facility described as dedicated to cakes and pastries. These products are distributed nationally through retail channels and company outlets.

• Convenience bakery · 2002

  Parbaked and frozen bakery products

  Introduced in 2002, this line includes parbaked pita, challah, rolls, ciabatta, artisan-style breads and pizza bases. The products are flash frozen and sold to customers or stores that complete the baking process, supporting freshness and food-service convenience.

• Crackers and snack bakery

  Wheat crisps

  Wheat crisps, marketed under the Hebrew name Kaliliot, are a cracker-style product associated with Angel’s retail brands. The reference material identifies a 19-calorie format but does not provide current nutritional or sales information.

• 2023

  Boycott over Omer Bar-Lev protest

  Angel Bakeries faced a boycott call from religious leaders after board chairman Omer Bar-Lev participated in a protest outside the home of Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, a prominent Haredi authority. The campaign was described as a response to what parts of the religious community regarded as disrespect toward the rabbi. Several large yeshivas reportedly canceled contracts, while the available reference does not establish the final commercial or governance outcome.

  Source

• 2020

  United Nations settlement-related listing

  The United Nations included Angel Bakeries in a database of companies involved in business activities related to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Golan Heights. The listing represents a criticism and human-rights-related controversy, not a finding of criminal liability in the supplied material.

  Source

Read more

• 2002

  Enter parbaked and frozen bakery productsProduct launch

  Background

  Angel sought to extend its bakery offering beyond fully baked products and provide fresher-feeling convenience goods for stores, customers and food-service users.

  Action taken

  The company launched flash-frozen parbaked pita, challah, rolls, ciabatta, artisan breads and pizza bases for completion of baking at the point of sale or consumption.

  Aftermath

  The move expanded Angel’s convenience and food-service portfolio; the supplied sources do not quantify its financial impact.

  Source

• 1984

  Combine public-market financing with family controlStrategy

  Background

  Angel needed a larger corporate platform as it expanded production, retail presence and product categories while retaining multigenerational family management.

  Action taken

  The company became the first Israeli bakery to list on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange and opened a factory store beside its Jerusalem plant.

  Aftermath

  Angel gained public-company status while continuing to be described as a family business. The supplied material does not provide the listing date details or current securities information.

  Source

• 2020

  United Nations database lists Angel Bakeries over settlement-related activity[1]Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org

  Regulation · Other

  The United Nations published a database naming companies involved in business activities related to Israeli settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Golan Heights. Angel Bakeries was included in the database.

1. 1Angel Bakeriesen.wikipedia.org