Where It All Began

What do Herman Lay, H.J. Heinz and Bill and Mary Jane Wenner have in common? Driven by a shared entrepreneurial spirit and dogged determination, they all are founders of what have become successful, multi-million dollar companies delighting consumers all over the world.

For Bill Sr. and Mary Jane Wenner, it all began with $2,000 back in 1956. Their first neighborhood pastry store-Wesley's in Roosevelt, Queens-led to the Mary Jane Bake Shop in West Islip, NY and two additional store front retail bakeries in the years that followed. Bill and Mary Jane's perseverance, unwavering dedication to quality and the hard work they and their five sons invested in their family bakery business soon gave rise to their first wholesale bakery (2,500 square feet) located in Deer Park, NY. Predicting that fresh hot bakeries located inside full service grocery stores would be the wave of the future, the family dedicated themselves to the development of fool-proof, labor-saving formulations. In 1978, they introduced frozen dough Challahs and Egg Twist Rolls, and they've never looked back.

Today, in over 150,000 square feet of production and warehouse space, Wenner Bread Products employs over 400 coworkers, manufacturing nearly 500 different varieties of breads and rolls for approximately 20,000 retail, in-store and food service bakeries. Wenner's own fleet of trucks, together with a vast network of common carriers, ensures that their wholesome frozen dough, par baked and fully baked products are delivered just in time, whether across town or across the country. Our state-of-the-art facility and the professionalism of the production and product development teams has raised the standard that each of us must reach for-and hopefully exceed-every day in fulfillment of our hard-won reputation for innovation and very high quality.

Today, Wenner is the largest independent frozen dough bread company on Long Island, and it is still owned and operated by the Wenner Family. The company's continued growth and success is due to visionary leadership combined with the talents and efforts of many people working as a team in the best tradition of free enterprise. These are the values upon which Bill Sr. and Mary Jane founded our company nearly 50 years ago, and they are the enduring principles which continue to guide us in this new millennium.