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Flowers Bakery is a large bread baking company in the Southeastern United States, based in Georgia.

In 1919 brothers William Howard and Joseph Hampton Flowers opened the Flowers Baking Company in Thomasville, GA. It grew and in 1944, joined the Quality Bakers of America, and became the sixth bakery in the US to franchise the Sunbeam Bread brand in various areas. In 1968 the company went public, becoming Flowers Industries, and in 1982 entered the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) as FLO. In 1996, it acquired the well known national food manufacturers, Mrs. Smith's Bakery, and Keebler, but sold them in 2001 and 2003, respectively; and was again restructured, becoming Flowers Foods.

Besides Sunbeam Bread, the company holds other franchises such as Roman Meal, and it's own Dandee brand in southern Florida. In 1977, Nature's Own and in 1983, Cobblestone Mill brands of specialty breads were introduced . Even in areas where the bread is not sold, Flowers had operations in such areas as southern California, where Burger King used its bread. Its "Specialty Group" is national, while the "Bakeries Group" has regional bakeries from Virginia to Florida on the east coast, west to Texas, and covering New Mexico and parts of the midwest. It also operates bakery thrift stores in these areas.

The wide variety of brands and products Flowers cakes could be found under

Flowers also has a large snack cake operation, which is also distributed by other bakeries and snack distributors under many brands. Many of the cakes are similar to Hostess and Dolly Madison. Formerly, its main snack cake brand was BeeBo, whose mascot was a teddy bear. Teddy bears or dolls were at times made of both BeeBo and Miss Sunbeam as promotions. Cakes were sold in many areas beyond where Flowers itself operates, under brands such as "Aunt Hannah" and "Mountain Farm", and several brand names purchased from acquired companies. Cakes were also distributed with a Sunbeam cake label Flowers printed for other bakeries who held the Sunbeam franchise in their respective regions. (It was also used by Flowers itself before the BeeBo brand was created). Local distributors often used their own brand names, such as "Lady Linda" or "Betty Jane" in the New York City area. Today, Blue Bird is the main cake brand, and Mrs. Freshley is the widespread distribution brand, which can be found in many vending machines across the country.

More recently, the company has entered the Hispanic foods market, with the Mi Casa tortillas and Tesoritos snack cakes.

http://www.flowersfoods.com/