Smucker Investing $120 Million to Expand Hostess Bakery in Columbus, Georgia
The J.M. Smucker Co. will invest $120 million to expand its Columbus, Ga., bakery, adding 48 jobs to bring the facility’s total to nearly 400 workers.
The Columbus bakery was acquired by Smucker as a part of the Hostess Brands acquisition, and this announcement signals the 55-year-old facility will continue to operate into the future. It’s also a positive signal for the Hostess business overall, which has had a rough go assimilating into Smucker after the latter acquired the sweet baked goods company in November 2023.
Since the acquisition, Smucker has made a variety of moves to “right-size” the Hostess business, selling off three brands (Cloverhill, Big Texas and Voortman), closing the former Hostess headquarters in Kansas and its Indianapolis bakery (about the same age as the Columbus facility, actually), and taking a $1 billion impairment charge to write-down the business in the third quarter of its fiscal 2025 year.
In Columbus, construction on the expansion has begun already, according to local news reports, and the project is expected to be finished by early 2027.
About the Author
Andy Hanacek
Senior Editor
Andy Hanacek has covered meat, poultry, bakery and snack foods as a B2B editor for nearly 20 years, and has toured hundreds of processing plants and food companies, sharing stories of innovation and technological advancement throughout the food supply chain. In 2018, he won a Folio:Eddie Award for his unique "From the Editor's Desk" video blogs, and he has brought home additional awards from Folio and ASBPE over the years. In addition, Hanacek led the Meat Industry Hall of Fame for several years and was vice president of communications for We R Food Safety, a food safety software and consulting company.