Schwebel's recipe for success includes variety

If you want good bread, you can't cut corners.
By MARY ELLEN PELLEGRINI
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
YOUNGSTOWN -- Americans have always had a love affair with white bread. It's moist, sweet and complements a multitude of foods.
While white breads remain the biggest sellers for the Schwebel Baking Company, "It's not just white bread and buns," said Lee Schwebel, Director of Corporate Communications. Inside the state-of-the-art facility on East Midlothian Boulevard in Youngstown hundreds of different products roll off its three main bread lines.
The bakery's newest offering, prepared in its Solon baking facility, is Oatbran & amp; Fruit Bread, a delicious combination of fruit, bran, honey and spices. "This is a very different, much more complex product," Schwebel said.
Schwebel's, a nationally recognized industry leader, markets its varied products across a 300-mile radius, is the only baker in America selected to make Cinnabon Bread and was chosen as the first supplier of authentic Jewish rye bread for Walt Disney's Epcot Center in Florida.
"It's all about innovation -- what ingredients, what flavors, what tastes, what equipment," Schwebel said. The bakery's new fruit bread is one example of innovation with flour and different ingredients.
Inside local bakeries
Together, Schwebel's four Ohio baking centers in Youngstown, Cuyahoga Falls, Solon and Hebron generate 700,000 bread, bun and roll products every day.
Wheat, Italian, potato, rye, pumpernickel, multi-grain and white breads travel through miles of conveyor belts on their journey from the huge vats of master dough to individual finished loaves.
Schwebel Baking Company also produces a wide assortment of rolls, buns and brown 'n serve products along with a specialty line of breakfast breads and fruit breads. For added variety, the company's Hearth Baked breads offer Old World-style products that are baked on the hearth oven rather than in pans.
The same basic recipe created by the founders, Joe and Dora Schwebel, to shape their Jewish rye bread is still used today.
The essence of the baking process also remains the same said Schwebel. "Baking is about science, about two important things -- time and temperature," he explained.
It takes eight hours to make a loaf of Schwebel Bread from start to finish. "Quality takes time. We don't rush the quality," he added.
Schwebel's prides itself on employing experienced, highly trained bakers, some of whom are graduates of the American Institute of Baking in Manhattan, Kansas.
Thriving in industry
The Schwebel family commitment to high standards and personal attention has enabled the company to remain ahead of the competition and effectively respond to changes in an evolving industry.
The baking industry is more trend-driven today because of consumer demands for specialty and premium breads, Schwebel said. Through improved equipment, bakeries can satisfy those requests by creating baked goods not possible 50 years ago.
"Products are a little more exotic and different because bakeries can do more with ingredients. The latest equipment allows us to make a better texture, better consistency and allows us to integrate fruits and spices into products," Schwebel said.
Because the bread industry is a labor-intensive and capital-intensive business, selecting products to come out of the Schwebel ovens entails careful research and testing. Company executives travel the country and stay abreast of industry news to determine consumer needs and desires. They also separate trends from fads, such as the short-lived interest in low-carb breads.
"Bakers have to be innovative, create products that have certain nutritional characteristics that consumers want," Schwebel said. He noted functional foods, such as bread products with omega-3 fatty acids, are becoming more popular.
Diversification
Schwebel Baking Company, one of the few independent, family-owned bakeries in America, markets its products under six national franchise brands -- Roman Meal, 'taliano, Country Hearth, Sun-Maid Raisin Bread, Cinnabon Bread and Milton's Bread.
The success of the company's Sun-Maid bread landed the contract to make Cinnabon. Schwebel's quality also caught the attention of the Disney Corporation in the early 1980s. Disney wanted an authentic rye bread for its German Village, and Schwebel rye was selected as the best in the country.
Its customer base spans across Ohio, into western Pennsylvania, western New York and northern West Virginia served by 25 distribution centers. Within each market, Schwebel's tailors its products to consumer demands. Buffalo loves rye bread, and the Columbus area buys family breads -- white and wheat, according to Schwebel.
Today, Schwebel Baking Company is the market share leader in Youngstown, Columbus, Akron, Canton and Cleveland as well as Pittsburgh and Erie, Pennsylvania.