The Holsum Story
The year was 1881. The townsite of Phoenix was only 11 years old, about to become incorporated . . . and already home to more than 1,500 residents.
Phoenix didn’t look like much back then: Only one school, four churches, a bank, a post office, two public halls, three hotels, a handful of saloons and six feed corrals dotted its dusty skyline. But it was growing. And growing fast.
Every day, stagecoaches from bustling cities in the East brought settlers to town in search of work, a new beginning, and if luck served ‘em well, the realization of a lifelong dream or two.
One such settler was young Edward Eisele.
Born in Saulgau, Germany in 1856, Edward was the son of the Station Kommandant of the State Police in the Kingdom of Wurttemberg. After completing a four-year apprenticeship in Germany, Edward was sent to London, where his parents had arranged for him to work with a textile manufacturer. His primary goal while there was to learn how to speak English.
However, the day after Edward arrived in London; he was badly beaten and robbed of everything he owned. When he reported to his new job several days later, understandably disheveled and disoriented, he was turned away.
Friendless and penniless, Eisele returned to the shipyard in Portsmouth, hoping to gain passage back to Germany. He met a ship’s Boatswain who offered room, board, and modest wages in exchange for various odd jobs aboard his ship. Eisele accepted – and spent the next two years at sea, painting, cleaning, charting and, as fate would have it, cooking and baking.
After nearly 2 years, his ship docked in a place named Philadelphia. Having heard much about the Land of Opportunity, Eisele decided that now was the time for him to seek his fortune in America. He wrote to his father to let him know he was still alive and wanted to “give this new place a try.”
His first job was in a Pennsylvania coal mine, where he took home 75 cents each week – good money for those days, especially because it included room and board.
Gold and silver had been struck in the West. So Eisele applied for the job as a cook on a wagon train and headed West to Colorado. Once there, the wagon train was hired to haul mining equipment into the New Mexico territory, then proceeded to the Arizona territory where Edward cooked and baked for the team of people who were surveying and building the Arizona canal.
As their job was nearing completion in 1881, Edward began looking for another job. He walked into the Phoenix Bakery (at Center St. and Washington) and asked if he could work there. The owner, M. J. Heinson who was also from Germany, hired him on the spot. After working for Mr. Heinson for 3 years, Edward purchased the business in 1884 for $300 and assumed all of the company’s outstanding bills.
The early ‘80s were good years. And Edward Eisele worked hard. Initially, he baked all of the bread, cakes, sweet rolls, cookies, pies, French pastries, and doughnuts himself. Each afternoon, he delivered his wares all over town. That is, until 1887, when his friend Alfred Becker left his career as a pharmacist to join the fledgling bakery.
Production was peaking at 200 loaves of bread a day and the Phoenix Bakery Boy became a familiar sight as he walked from door to door, carrying baskets full of fragrant loaves.
As Phoenix grew, so did the necessity for a more expeditious form of transportation. So Edward decided to learn how to ride one of those newfangled miracles called a bicycle. He balanced his bread baskets on either side of the back tire and away he went – increasing his route so quickly that Edward and Alfred decided to buy a horse-drawn bakery wagon to deliver more loaves even farther.
The first horse-drawn bakery wagon in the territory of Arizona was such a success that in 1894, they added seven more wagons to their burgeoning fleet.
In 1910, Edward and Alfred bought their first gas-powered vehicle to deliver its products – and became the first bakery in the territory of Arizona to use a motorized means of product distribution!
Being first with innovative new ideas became the trademark of the company. They were first to use sanitary waxed paper wrappers in the early 1900’s; first to sell sliced bread in 1931; and first to advertise their products on a tricky earphone set known as the radio.
Edward and Alfred were each blessed with a son, Lloyd and Charles. They grew up together, were good friends, and even went away to the University of Michigan together in the early 1920’s. And when they returned to Phoenix, they both joined the business.
By 1929, as most of the country was beleaguered by the Great Depression, the Phoenix Bakery had outgrown its original location and moved to a larger building at the former Phoenix Indian School site on the southwest corner of Washington and 7th Avenue.
That same year, Lloyd and Charles decided the bakery should become exclusively wholesale. So they purchased the rights to a well-known national bread brand from the W.E. Long Company in Chicago – and renamed their bakery and its products Holsum.
Following in their fathers’ footsteps, Charles managed sales and Lloyd directed plant production.
The business continued to grow. And so did the long list of firsts Holsum Bakery brought to Arizona. Even before the Federal government initiated its health-conscious Enrichment Program during World War II, Holsum was baking enriched bread for its customers. And in the late ‘40s, when television advertising came into being, Holsum was the first bakery in Arizona to advertise on “the tube”. And, more recently, Holsum was the first wholesale bakery in the Southwest to introduce an All Natural line of grain beads, as well as, sugar free and low carbohydrate breads.
By 1947, Holsum had once again outgrown its facilities. A brand new, fully automated plant was constructed on South 23rd Avenue, housing the finest state-of-the-art baking equipment in the industry at that time.
As Holsum continued to focus on the wholesale market, production of sweet products like cookies, pies and cakes ceased. Bread production increased dramatically – and has continued to do so over the years.
Today, under the guidance of Lloyd Eisele’s son, Edward, Holsum produces over 400 varieties of bread, buns, and rolls each week!
As the Southwestern region of our country has grown, so has Holsum’s distribution network – now reaching many hundreds of independent distributors on a daily basis through-out Arizona, Southern California, Southern Nevada and parts of Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico.
Throughout its history, the bakers at Holsum have received numerous awards for superior quality by many national organizations, as well as, its customers. For many consecutive years, Holsum has placed 1st in competition with many other bread and bun bakers.
In its quest to continue making improvements to existing work processes, the leadership at Holsum embraced the concepts embedded within Continuous Improvement in the belief that - in spite of how good we may be - - there is always room for improved quality and service and those beliefs drive the people at Holsum to this day.
Holsum owes much of its success to the community that has supported it.
From its beginnings, the people at Holsum have been engaged in its community, knowing that a healthy community benefits everyone. In addition to the many thousands of products donated each and every week to agencies that feed those in need of our help, Holsum has also supported numerous charities very quietly over the years.
Holsum has undergone many changes since its humble beginning back in 1881. But the one thing that has never changed – and the one thing that never will – is Holsum’s commitment to quality.
Welcome to Holsum. Where pride, quality and dedication are the most important ingredients in the products we bake.
An Overview
Holsum Bakery, Inc., established in the town of Phoenix in the Arizona territory in 1881, is Arizona's oldest family owned business and today the largest wholesale bakery in the Southwestern USA. Edward Eisele, the current owner and President, is the grandson of the company founder.
Holsum Bakery is the market-share leader in Arizona for commercially-baked baked bread and bun products. Fresh Holsum Bakery products are distributed by over 250 independent distributors to retail grocers, convenience stores, restaurants, hospitals, hotels, military bases, fast food establishments, and trading posts through-out the Southwest on a daily basis.
As the marketplace has continued to change, and as our tastes and nutritional needs have also continued to change, so have Holsum's associates had to constantly change in order to continue to be relevant in today's food industry. One of the best examples of these changes can be seen in any of Holsum's bakeries, where you will see state-of-the-art equipment positioned within facilities that are immaculately clean and well-organized. In addition to all of the extremely-modern equipment, you will also find that Holsum's associates are among the best-trained in the baking industry, since every year, every Holsum associate receives a minimum of 40 hours of re-training on subjects that help each individual continue to add value to the process in which he or she works.
Holsum associates bake numerous types of products in several bakeries in the Valley of the Sun. The bakery in Phoenix was built by Del Webb (former owner of the New York Yankees) in 1946, right after World War II. Holsum's associates in this bakery produce a wide variety of breads and buns on several different production lines. In the Tempe bakery, Holsum's associates produce only buns, rolls, and certain French-type products. Finally, Holsum's associates at the Tolleson bakery produce both bread and buns for fresh distribution to numerous depots and destinations through-out the Southwest on a daily basis.
Moving into the future, the challenge for every Holsum associate will be to continue to learn new ways of doing the job that Holsum's customers expect every day: produce and deliver highest quality baked goods, on time, and at the right price. That-in turn-enables our customer's satisfaction.
Our Company Culture
Holsum associates enjoy a vibrant and progressive work environment. Working together, the Holsum team carries forward the company’s traditions of innovation and market leadership.
Vision
Our associates, customers, and vendors will view us as very ethical people, where openness and trust are the expectation. By educating, enthusing, and empowering each member of our team to actively - - and with a sense of urgency - - be engaged in continuously improving the work processes for which he or she has control, we will meet the needs of an expanding customer base with consistently- high quality products and services at very competitive prices, all coming out of a safe environment where people are growing and having fun in the process.
Prime Directives
We conduct our business with uncompromised ethics in an environment of mutual trust. We treat everyone with dignity and respect.
We look for people who share our values:
Statement of Values
OUR CUSTOMERS
We will understand and conform to the requirements of our external and internal customers product and service needs.
OUR PEOPLE
We will provide and enforce a safe work environment. We believe that the fulfillment of each person, fair treatment and the opportunity to contribute are essential to our success.
QUALITY
We will employ continuous process improvement methodologies as the basis for our effort to perform defect-free work.
FINANCIAL
We will develop and deploy a strategy that combines both a competitive marketing plan with a cost reduction and wage elimination focus in our quest to improve profitability and return on invested capital.
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