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These are notes from a United Way visit with Audie Keaton.  Good update info for us too.

J Skinner – Modern Artisan Baking 

Meeting with Audie Keaton, President & CEO

Greg Vassios & Shawna Forsberg

October 2, 2019

Today Greg Vassios and I had a fabulous meeting with Audie Keaton. Audie has been with the organization for 28 years. When he joined they were $4 million organization and we’re operating in the red they sold the macaroni business in ‘78 and we’re basically producing products for Sara Lee. Now they are a $240 million organization in annual sales and will double in the next 18 months with new large contracts that are coming. They are the industry leader in their category and will be name supplier of the year for Walmart. They have 98% market share and in-store bakeries.

His goal is to keep it’s very stable existing lines moving as well as product development. He said our timing for meeting was very good as they had been in discussions on starting a foundation. They currently have large operations in Omaha, Texas in Philadelphia. Jim Skinner retired four years ago and is the only member of the Skinner family still involved in the business but he anticipates having him and potentially another family member involved in the foundation. And he just hired a new HR director and felt she would be the best person to work with on implementation. He said he would like to set up a lunch to talk about next steps. We will ask Glenda to set this up before the end of the year.

We also invited him as our guest and his HR person to join us for annual meeting on October 18 – he was pleased to be invited and I will forward him the information today. We will have him sit with Greg. At the annual meeting we will also make an effort to introduce him to Steve Kaniewski and other board members

Feels like this could have great potential for a new partnership!

We are a company providing artisan sweet baked goods including Danish, sweet rolls, gourmet buns, pastries and muffins. In December 2012, we acquired a 390,000 square foot facility in Paris, Texas which will supplement our bakery in Omaha and allow us to expand our product offerings to croissants and frozen dough. We are committed to the craft of baking and providing consumers with the ultimate eating experience.