With Love’s Bakery closure a day away, its brand will live on

Love’s Bakery is slated to close Wednesday after nearly 170 years in business, but not all of the brand’s baked goods will disappear from local store shelves.

A big family-owned bakery business headquartered in Oregon has arranged to keep making sliced bread and buns under the Love’s name for distribution throughout Hawaii.

Portland-based Franz Family Bakery, also known as United States Bakery, announced Monday that it has acquired a license to produce the Love’s-branded items on the mainland for Hawaii.

No interruption in supply is expected, and Franz might later start to produce Love’s doughnuts, according to a company representative.

The arrangement will avoid the loss of some Love’s products, though the locally owned bakery that was in deep financial distress amid the coronavirus pandemic will still shut down Wednesday with all 231 company employees losing their jobs.

“It is always a sad day in our industry when an independent bakery closes, especially one like Love’s that has been such an integral part of life in Hawaii for more than 100 years,” Kimberly Albers-Nisbet, Franz president and director of sales, said in a statement. “The Love’s brand has a proud and distinguished history in Hawaii and Franz Family Bakery is honored to be given this opportunity to help carry the Love’s tradition forward through this licensing agreement.”

Franz is a fourth-generation, family-owned business founded in 1906 by immigrant brothers Engelbert, Joseph and Ignaz Franz, who acquired a small bakery and then began growing the business largely through other acquisitions that began in 1907 with United States Bakery.

Acquisitions in recent years include Unified Bakery in Los Angeles in 2016, Alpicella Bakery in Boise, Idaho, in 2018 and Dunford/Rocky Mountain Bakery in Salt Lake City in 2019.

Today, Franz operates bakeries in seven Western states, has 68 retail outlets and makes products under other brands that include Breadlovers, Seattle Sourdough Baking Co., Naked Bread, Western Farms, Alaska Grains Baking Co. and Montana’s SweetHeart Baking Co.

Franz also used to make some Love’s products for distribution in Hawaii, and Love’s has distributed some Franz brands in Hawaii.

“There’s a long relationship,” said Chuck Choi, a local attorney representing Love’s.

Financial terms of the licensing agreement between Love’s and Franz were not disclosed.

Under the arrangement, Franz will make several varieties of Love’s sliced breads and buns.

Love’s also produced other brands of bread and pastry that aren’t part of the licensing deal. These brands include Wonder Bread, Roman Meal, Milton’s, Home Pride, Hostess, Little Debbie, Svenhard’s Pastries, Weight Watchers and Mrs. Freshly’s.

Hawaii Foodservice Alliance will distribute Love’s products for Franz.

Love’s announced its closing plan March 1, saying that it had lost more than 20% of its revenue last year when sales from hotels, restaurants and other tourist-dependant outlets dried up.

The company, Hawaii’s dominant commercial bakery, said it was seriously delinquent on rent and couldn’t qualify for a second forgivable federal Paycheck Protection Program loan after receiving what government records show was an initial loan of between $2 million and $5 million in April.

“With the decline in revenue and the increasing expenses to keep the bakery running, we have made the difficult decision to cease operations as a faltering business,” the company said in a layoff notice filed with the state.

Love’s has nearly 1,800 commercial customers through which roughly 400,000 bread loaves are distributed weekly along with other baked goods.

For generations, Love’s has been a household name in Hawaii.

The company was founded in 1851 on Nuuanu Street by Scottish immigrant Robert Love, and was run by the same family for several generations until 1960 when company owners — some 114 family members and employees — sold the business to mainland giant Continental Baking Co.

First Baking Co. of Japan bought Love’s in 1981 and rebranded the business as Daiichiya-Love’s Bakery for the next 27 years.

In 2008 local management acquired Love’s with plans to upgrade equipment and improve operations. However, the company wasn’t in great shape before the COVID-19 pandemic. Choi previously said Love’s was losing sales due to increased competition and had inefficiencies at its Middle Street plant, which contained some antiquated equipment.

On Wednesday, Love’s will close its main factory along with retail outlets in Kaneohe, Hilo, Kahului, Lihue and Kailua-Kona.

Deborah Candace Love, a Makiki resident whose father and grandfather helped run Love’s more than 50 years ago, said she’s still sad about the impending shutdown but also glad that the family bakery name will live on in Hawaii.

Deb Williams, great- great-granddaughter of Robert Love, said the brand license is bittersweet news.

“Yes, the Love’s name will continue, but the heart of Love’s Bakery — its employees, its history, my family’s love for Hawaii, and devotion to its people — will no longer be in the fresh-baked-daily bread,” she said.

Franz said it is working with Love’s and Hawaii Foodservice Alliance to offer $25,000 in grants to local nonprofits to commemorate the 170th anniversary of the Love’s brand in July. Information for how nonprofits can apply will be forthcoming from Franz.