Semifreddi's Bakery

Semifreddi’s Bakery
Private
Industry Bread
Headquarters Alameda, CA
Area served
 San Francisco Bay Area
Key people
 Tom Frainier, President and CEO; Mike Rose; John Tredgold
Revenue ~15 million
Owner Tom Frainier (aka Chief Boot Licker), Barbara Rose, and Michael Rose
Number of employees
 ~125
Website www.semifreddis.com

Semifreddi’s Bakery is an Alameda-based artisan bakery that serves the entire San Francisco Bay Area.[1][2][3] The name Semifreddi means “half-frozen” in Italian.

Beginnings and early history

In 1984, Eric and Carol Sartenaer, ex-Cheese Board Collective members, opened shop in a 450-square-foot “hole in the wall” bakery in Kensington, California.[4] In January 1987, Barbara Frainier (one of their first employees) took over the business with her husband Michael Rose. In 1988, Tom Frainier (Barbara’s brother) joined the Semifreddi’s team. In order to save money, Tom, Barbara, and Michael, lived together in a small flat in Berkeley, California.[5] Tom, who holds an MBA from Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, left an upper management position at Clorox to join his sister and brother in law, both UC Berkeley alumni, in the bread and pastry-making business.[6][7] When asked about his exit strategy, Frainier replies, “death.”[5] After Frainier took the helm as President, CEO, and self-proclaimed, “Chief Boot Licker,” Semifreddi’s rapidly expanded throughout the San Francisco Bay, while maintaining its emphasis on baking high-quality, European-style artisan bread and pastries.[7]

Semifreddi’s Chocolate Croissant

Present day

Semifreddi’s has become one of the largest artisan wholesale bread and pastry bakeries in the Bay Area. It is located in Alameda, California.[8] Semifreddi’s and Acme are the two major players in the San Francisco Bay bread industry. In 2009, Semifreddi’s moved into a 33,000 square foot facility, where the bakery recycles 95 percent of its waste.[1] It operates 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for all 52 weeks of the year.[8] The bakery utilizes over 25 different recipes and bakes more than 50 different artisan breads and pastries. In a typical week, Semifreddi’s bakes and delivers over 200,000 baguettes, rolls, and loaves and 40,000 pastries and cookies a week.[8] Semifreddi’s sells to grocery stores, restaurants, and cafés throughout the bay area.

Baked goods

Frainier and Rose believe the key to bread-making is “less is more.”[9] All Semifreddi’s breads contain just flour, water, salt and yeast. The doughs are fresh-mixed daily, never refrigerated or frozen. All Semifreddi’s breads are certified kosher pareve and all their pastries are certified kosher dairy. Semifreddi’s bakes French and Italian style bread and pastries, which includes baguettes, loaves, batards, and French style pastries. They also bake croutons, cookies, and various seasonal sweets.[10]

Community

Every year Semifreddi’s opens its doors and conducts over 75 school tours and other tours, giving away thousands of free goodie bags, and showing students of all ages how to bake world-class breads and pastries.[11] Semifreddi’s believes that it holds the responsibility to help support local organizations and charities.[11] In 2012, Semifreddi’s donated over 500,000 dollars worth of fresh bread and pastries to schools, churches, synagogues, mosques, temples and community organizations to be distributed to those in need, as well as to be served and sold at fundraising events.[11] Semifreddi’s also supports the Young Entrepreneurs At Haas (Y.E.A.H), which is an organization of college students at the Haas School of Business that helps under-privileged children get into college, Alameda County Meals on Wheels, the Bread Project, and the Berkeley Rep Theatre.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Girard, Kim.The Future of Food. BerkeleyHaas Magazine, 2012.
  2. ↑ Fietelberg, Jerilyn. Rolling in Dough at Semifreddi’s. Piedmonter, 1996.
  3. ↑ Johnson, Elain. The Bread Rush. Sunset Magazine, 1994.
  4. ↑ Saekel, Karola. Bread Winners. San Francisco Chronicle, 1991.
  5. 1 2 Mitchell, Eve. Former Clorox manager now supplies bread to Bay Area. Bay Area News Group, June 24, 2012.
  6. ↑ McEver, Katherine. Bread Circuses. The East Bay Monthly, 1993, Vol. 24, p. 18.
  7. 1 2 Kilduff, Paul. The Fresh CEO. The East Bay Monthly, 2012, Vol. 42, p. 22.
  8. 1 2 3 Our Story Semifreddi’s.
  9. ↑ Mizel, Ann. Wonder Breads. Marin Independent Journal, 1991.
  10. ↑ Products Semifreddi’s.
  11. 1 2 3 Community and kids Semifreddi’s.

External links

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