A & P Meals Shops
*1775 W Beaver *
Based in New York Metropolis by George Gilman in 1859, The Nice Atlantic & Pacific Tea Firm, initially named Gilman & Firm, was rebranded as A&P in 1869. By 1930, A&P had grown into the world’s largest retailer, producing $2.9 billion in annual gross sales and working greater than 16,000 shops. Till 1965, it held the excellence of being the most important retailer in the USA, with a cultural presence as iconic in its period as Walmart, McDonald’s, or Google are in the present day.
A&P’s Southeastern headquarters was positioned in Jacksonville, Florida, the place its regional operations included an industrial-scale bakery, a produce packing facility, and a espresso roasting plant for its well-known Eight O’Clock Espresso model.
Jacksonville was strategically chosen for its logistical benefits: the flexibility to obtain uncooked supplies by rail and function a central distribution hub for truck-based supply networks. Accomplished in 1932, A&P’s bakery was located on the northeast nook of West Beaver Avenue and Robinson Avenue. The three-story construction was designed to be fireproof, constructed with strengthened concrete flooring, brick infill curtain partitions, and steel manufacturing facility home windows. An Atlantic Coast Line Railroad siding alongside the east aspect of the constructing ensured environment friendly cargo of bakery merchandise.
A&P’s decline started after World Battle II, when the corporate struggled to adapt to evolving market competitors and retail traits. In 1968, the corporate relocated most of its distribution operations to a brand new warehouse on Jacksonville’s Northside, at 3101 Hilton Avenue,a web site now occupied by Sysco Meals Worldwide.
Regardless of a short-lived resurgence within the early 2000s, A&P in the end ceased operations in 2015 after submitting for Chapter 11 chapter in each 2010 and 2015. Its Jacksonville bakery and division headquarters closed round 1977. In 2000, the previous bakery web site was demolished by Beaver Avenue Fisheries and redeveloped into a contemporary 30,255-square-foot freezer facility.
Ambrosia Cake Bakeries Company
1727-41 Danese
Constructed in 1925 for E.L. Inexperienced’s Sunshine Potato Chip Firm, this rusticated concrete block constructing at 1727-41 Danese Avenue was among the many first manufacturing operations established within the Glen Myra neighborhood of Jacksonville’s Historic Eastside. By 1928, the previous potato chip facility on Danese Avenue had turn into house to the Ambrosia Cake Bakeries Company. Initially based in St. Louis by E.L. Bordo, the Ambrosia Cake Firm specialised within the manufacture of recent desserts. After relocating the enterprise to Jacksonville, it skilled fast development. Bordo offered the enterprise in 1925 and moved to Burlington, Vermont.
The customer, Earle P. Colby of Holyoke, Massachusetts, had moved to Florida in 1924. On the time, Ambrosia operated from a small constructing at 2917 Essential Avenue. Colby’s enterprise mannequin centered solely on baking desserts and promoting them wholesale to bakeries, which might then distribute them alongside bread to native retailers. As a result of Ambrosia’s desserts have been extremely perishable, lasting solely about two days, they have been priced between 5 and 39 cents and offered underneath varied model names.
As the corporate flourished, Colby turned president of the Southern Bakers Affiliation by 1950. With assist from his brother, William C. Colby, Ambrosia expanded to incorporate extra bakeries in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Birmingham, Alabama.
In 1954, the Kansas Metropolis-based Interstate Bakeries Company (IBC) acquired Ambrosia, marking IBC’s first foray into the Southern market. Organized as a separate cake division underneath the management of Earle P. Colby, the operation generated $1.5 million in annual gross sales and marketed desserts underneath the Ambrosia and Dolly Madison manufacturers. Its distribution space stretched from Key West to Washington, D.C., and westward to Arkansas. Over time, IBC developed into Hostess Manufacturers, recognized for merchandise like Hostess, Marvel Bread, Nature’s Delight, and Dolly Madison. Nonetheless, continued company development led to the abandonment of the unique Eastside bakery.
In 1956, brothers Clayton and Willard Smith repurposed the constructing for his or her bicycle enterprise. Initially based in Miami in 1944, Clayton-Willard Bicycles had relocated to Jacksonville in 1948. By 1976, the corporate started manufacturing the Emory bicycle at this location, changing into the primary firm within the U.S. to provide the enduring seaside cruiser. Finally, the enterprise was rebranded because the Emory Manufacturing Firm.
American Bakeries Firm
2135 Market Avenue
American Bakeries was established in 1910 by means of the merger of three firms: the Highland Baking Firm, Martin Cracker and Sweet Firm, and the Huston Biscuit Firm. Within the early Nineteen Twenties, American Bakeries constructed a Merita Bread bakery on the intersection of eleventh and Market Streets in Jacksonville’s Springfield Warehouse District. In the course of the Nineteen Thirties, it a second Jacksonville location operated at 703-05 West Bay Avenue in LaVilla.
In 1988, American Bakeries was acquired by IBC Holdings, which rebranded itself as Interstate Bakeries in 1991. To modernize its operations, Interstate Bakeries constructed a state-of-the-art 141,833-square-foot bakery on a ten.8-acre web site at 201 Bush Drive East, positioned within the Imeson Worldwide Industrial Park in North Jacksonville. When it opened in 1994, the brand new facility was able to producing 168 loaves of bread per minute and was described because the best-equipped bakery inside a 500-mile radius.
A lot of the unique Merita Bread bakery in Springfield was demolished in 1999. Nonetheless, a number of the remaining buildings have been repurposed to function the Fleet Upkeep Division for the Jacksonville operation.
In 2009, Interstate Bakeries rebranded as soon as once more as Hostess Manufacturers, Inc. Nonetheless, simply three years later, in 2012, Hostess was shut down and liquidated. On the time of closure, the North Jacksonville bakery employed 128 staff.
In January 2013, Flowers Meals introduced its intent to amass quite a lot of Hostess’s bread manufacturers. The preliminary provide, valued at $360 million, included 20 bakeries and 38 distribution depots, amongst them, the North Jacksonville facility that had changed the outdated Springfield plant. Whereas Flowers did purchase the shuttered bakery, it in the end selected to not reopen the placement.
Darlings Bakery Inc.
825 Barnett Avenue
A longtime model underneath the Winn-Dixie banner, Dixie Darlings Bakery, Inc. operated for many years in Jacksonville’s New City neighborhood. Positioned at 825 Barnett Avenue, the wholesale bakery was housed inside Winn-Dixie’s unique company headquarters and distribution middle. The model was named after Edith (Dixie) Darling, a reservations supervisor at a Jacksonville lodge.
Baking operations on the web site started in 1931 underneath the Suwannee Meals & Baking Firm, which was affiliated with the Lovett’s Groceteria chain. Based in 1928 by William “Invoice” Lovett, the grocery enterprise quickly expanded, reaching 78 shops throughout Florida and Georgia. In 1939, Lovett persuaded Desk Provide to amass a controlling 51% stake in his firm.
This strategic transfer led to the formation of Winn & Lovett, which turned the brand new company identify. In 1952, it made historical past as the primary Florida-based industrial company to be listed on the New York Inventory Trade. The corporate’s distribution hub, which included the Dixie Darlings Bakery, turned its official headquarters.
In 1955, Winn & Lovett merged with Dixie Residence Shops of Greenville, South Carolina, which operated 117 shops. The newly mixed firm was renamed Winn-Dixie Shops, Inc., quickly changing into one of many prime ten grocery store chains in the USA.
Whereas the grocery big relocated its headquarters to West Jacksonville within the mid-Fifties, the Dixie Darlings Bakery continued working at its New City location till the mid-Nineteen Eighties. In newer years, the previous industrial web site was occupied by Load King. Right this moment, the historic advanced is listed on the market.