Tastes change, Peoria's Butternut remains

Names and tastes may change but bread is still getting made in this South Peoria neighborhood as it has for more than a century.

The Butternut bread plant at 1511 W. Lincoln Ave. not only pumps out that fresh bakery smell throughout the area but produced 56 million pounds of bread and buns last year, said general manager Matt Stringer.

Bread was first baked on this site in 1905, when the operation was known as Schultze's Buttercrust Bakery. In the early 1930s, the bakery was purchased by Interstate Brands, a national firm now known as Hostess Brands.

Today, the Butternut bakery in Peoria runs two shifts a day, producing bread and buns for a sales area that extends far beyond the city, serving much of the state, said Stringer. The building's 29 truck docks stay busy day and night with deliveries to Chicago, Indianapolis and Waterloo, Iowa, among the most frequent stops, he said.

“There are nine bakeries in our business unit,” said Stringer, pointing to the Midwestern portion of the Hostess baking empire. As the largest wholesale baker and distributor of fresh bread in the country, Hostess operates bread- and bun-baking operations at places like Peoria, while the bakery in Schiller Park, outside Chicago, does cake, including the trademark Twinkies product.

Working away in a predominantly residential neighborhood appeals to Stringer. “A lot of people don't know we're here. We stay quiet. That's good. That's the reason the bakery's been here so long,” he said.

Stringer was also quick to point to his 130 employees as the biggest reason the plant is able to produce a little over 1 million pounds of bread and buns each week.

“The work ethic of the people in this building is outstanding. You're only going to be as good as your weakest link, but I don't have any weak links,” he said.

While sliced bread has long been the standard by which we measure modern developments (as in, “The greatest thing since sliced bread”), Stringer acknowledged that times change.

“I have bread and butter with every meal,” said the manager, who's been a Butternut employee for 30 years. “But the baby boomers are reaching retirement age. They're not eating as much as they used to. And their (grown) kids may not have a loaf of bread in the house,” said Stringer.

Those changes, along with a more health-conscious society pursuing whole grains and other alternatives, may have something to do with the financial problems of Butternut's parent company.

Hostess declared bankruptcy in January, just a few years after Interstate Bakeries, as the company was previously known, emerged from bankruptcy proceedings from a filing in 2004.

“Everyone is concerned about it. The employees understand it, but there's not a lot we can do about it. What we can do is take care of business here,” said Stringer.

Butternut's business remains strong in central Illinois, said Hostess spokesman Erik Halvorson from company offices in Dallas.

Butternut has a 30.6 percent market share of wheat bread in the Peoria market, he said. Wonder Bread, also produced in the Butternut bakery, has an 8.2 percent share. “So between Butternut and Wonder, we have a 38.8 percent market share, which is almost three times more than our competitors,” said Halvorson.

The gap is even larger on the white bread side, he said. The Butternut/Wonder share of the Peoria market is almost five times more than the closest competitor, said Halvorson.

While the original plant was built more than 100 years ago, the Butternut facility has seen numerous upgrades over the years, with major additions to the plant in 1977 and 1995, said Stringer.

A milelong conveyor belt takes bread from the ovens on a cooling journey to be sliced, packaged and boxed for delivery, said operations manager Jerry Montgomery, a Butternut employee for 26 years.

As for the pleasant aroma that accompanies the baking process, Montgomery said that he doesn't even notice it anymore. Except when garlic bread is on the line. “That's when I call my wife at home and suggest we have spaghetti for dinner,” he said.

Montgomery said a veteran workforce is on the job at the plant. “The average tenure for a Butternut employee is between 15 and 20 years,” he said.

The recent heat wave raised temperatures at the plant but Stringer said that employees recognize that summer — with backyard barbecues raising the demand for buns — is a busy time. “When this heat comes down, our business will pick up until Labor Day,” he said.

For Stringer, it's all a matter of serving the public. “It's a business that understands its roll,” he said.