Kansas City, Missouri — Seven simple words. When strung together and punctuated, they form a question with a plethora of answers, a lifetime of accomplishment, and watershed moments on a path with limitless potential.
“How big do you want to be?” That’s what Tilmon “Tim” Brown, founder and chairman of Norwalk, Ohio-based New Horizons Baking Co., asked his daughter Trina Bediako before she took over as CEO in 2020.
When the Brown family bought New Horizons (formerly West Baking Co.) in 1995, it was just a small bun operation for McDonald’s. Today, the company employs over 700 people in four baking facilities that make buns, English muffins, and, soon, pancakes for a wide range of retail and foodservice customers across the United States, as well as an ingredient blending operation called New Horizons Food Solutions.
“I asked that question 25 years ago,” Brown explained. “I asked the question to keep people positive about our progress. To tell them that we could grow if we had the right vision within ourselves.”
High risk, high reward
While the direction and speed of growth may differ from Brown’s, Bediako’s vision, combined with the operational expertise of Mike Porter, president and COO, is ushering in a new era for New Horizons. The most recent milestone is a 155,000-square-foot bakery in Columbus, Ohio, which houses a high-speed bun line and a new pancake line set to launch in early September, as well as a 120,000-square-foot production facility in Columbus dedicated to the ingredient operation.
“Trina’s doing things that make sense for the company,” she said. “I was more risk-averse and did not grow the company as quickly or as far as she did. It served me well at the time, but I admire what she is doing now. This team has come a long way, not only with the plant and equipment, but also in terms of acquisitions and how big they want to be. In my mind, it’s picture-perfect.”
Between strategic vision and operational execution, New Horizons has figured out how to propel fundamentals into the future by transforming traditional bun production into entirely new possibilities. That started with getting the basics right.
Known as “the baker’s baker,” New Horizons established the Genesis Baking subsidiary in 2008 to handle contract manufacturing for all non-McDonald’s production, including the new pancake line. New Horizons has diversified its business by strategically entering new markets through Genesis, while maintaining McDonald’s status as a long-standing, valued partner.
The company experienced a surge in growth over the last five years when it converted its Toledo, OH, distribution center into a bakery, launching a new English muffin line in 2021. Later that year, New Horizons acquired Coalescence, a dry ingredient blend manufacturer, followed by the 2024 acquisition of Graffiti Foods, a liquid blend producer for the foodservice market.
Bolstering the business
“When we thought about that idea of, ‘How big do you want to be,’ we put together a plan for three to five years,” Bediako told me. “We realized there was a lot of change in the industry. There are fewer family businesses and more private equity groups entering the industry, and we wanted to ensure our position was as strong as possible.”
Often, opportunity motivates action. But sometimes the action must come first, which can be risky. Intuition must be sharp and tuned. Bediako’s iron was heating up, and it was time to strike.
In 2024, a building in Columbus became available that was originally designed for food manufacturing and included an existing internal freezer, space for a high-speed bun line, and the ability to add more lines. The vision was coming into focus.
“We realized we couldn’t wait for all the business to be booked before we built this next phase,” Bediako told me. “If we did, we’d pass up opportunities that presented themselves. So we devised a strategy. We assessed. We planned. We considered where we wanted to be and what our customers’ needs were, and we decided we were willing to take some risk.”
They met with a group of ten bankers to discuss New Horizons’ vision and future strategy, and as a result, they were able to secure the funds required to build both Columbus facilities. One year later, Coalescence and Graffiti merged to form New Horizons Food Solutions. With full blending capabilities, opportunities expanded exponentially, whether for its own bakeries or to support customers, ingredient suppliers, or even other bakers. With the ingredient operation streamlined, the Columbus bakery now operates one of the fastest bun lines in the McDonald’s network.
“The business we’ve created from these investments has put us in an enviable financial position,” said Kurt Loeffler, New Horizons’ CFO. “The work has just begun, but the possibilities of where we go from here are endless.”
Beyond the buns
Not only will the new bakery increase New Horizons’ bun capacity by approximately 55 million dozen per year, but it will also enable the company to serve a customer base spanning a 250-mile radius, nearly as far as Washington, DC.
However, the Columbus operations do not only produce buns and ingredient blends. The team had intended to install an English muffin line following the bun line, but an opportunity arose from a non-McDonald’s English muffin customer on the Genesis side of the business.
“Opportunities have a way of presenting themselves,” according to Porter. “We had the privilege to sit down with one of our largest customers, and we were awarded pancake business, not because of what we could do for them, but because of what we have done for the past 19 years.”
These types of opportunities stem from a commitment to quality, which frequently begins with New Horizons’ R&D team, led by Matt Bowers, director of R&D, who has been with the company for over 34 years.
“We pride ourselves on the fact that we don’t bake in a lab,” Mr. Bowers said. “Our R&D team is exceptional, and they prioritize doing samples on the line, particularly for clean-label and high-protein products.” This strategy allows us to demonstrate how we make these products on a daily basis.”
With the pancake line set to launch this fall, the Food Solutions facility will feed the business by blending its pancake mix, allowing New Horizons to leverage purchasing power for sugar and other ingredients.
Furthermore, vertical integration makes growth more tangible than ever, particularly since the pancake line alone will be capable of producing 30,000 full-size pancakes or 72,000 minis per hour. It also provides opportunities for future expansion, if the business requires it.
“We’ve taken risks, but when we get new business opportunities, that’s how we can pay for it,” Porter told me. “That’s why the pancake line and the business it inspired have been such a blessing to us. Trina delves deeper into the question of ‘How big do you want to be’. We’re looking inward, reminding ourselves that we need to be better than we were yesterday. “When we are, the sky is the limit.”
With new infrastructure in place, dreams are coming true in almost every aspect of the business.
“Mike and I did a lot of ‘blue sky’ thinking,” Bediako explained. “Now that the ingredient business has started, we’re bringing the vision to life with the bun and pancake lines. It is a beautiful thing.”
