Minneapolis-based Rise Baking Company has closed its acquisition of Jimmy's Gourmet Bakery, a 40-year-old wholesale bakery operator, adding three Northeast manufacturing facilities totaling more than 350,000 square feet to its production network. The deal deepens Rise's position in the cookie category and extends its artisan bread footprint as demand for thaw-and-sell bakery solutions continues to grow across QSR, grocery, and convenience channels.
What Rise Is Getting
Jimmy's brings a multi-brand portfolio — including the Jimmy's Cookies line, the King Krumb Cookie brand, and Ecce Panis artisan breads — along with established private-label capabilities and direct relationships with retail and foodservice customers nationwide. The company has operated since 1985 and built its reputation around thaw-and-sell formats, a segment that has gained traction with operators seeking to minimize in-house baking labor while maintaining a fresh-baked presentation. For foodservice buyers, thaw-and-sell programs reduce skilled-labor dependency at the unit level, a meaningful advantage given persistent back-of-house staffing pressures across segments.
Rise Baking, formed in 2013, already supplies leading national grocery chains, convenience stores, QSRs, and mass merchandisers through a portfolio that includes Brill, South Coast Baking, Table Talk, Best Maid, and Bakestone Brothers, among others. The Jimmy's acquisition follows Rise's established playbook of bolt-on deals that add category depth and regional manufacturing scale without disrupting existing customer programs.
Integration and Operator Continuity
Jimmy's will continue operating independently during an integration period, a structure Rise has used in prior acquisitions to preserve supplier relationships and minimize disruption for foodservice and retail customers. Mark McNeil, CEO of Rise Baking Company, pointed to the acquired team as a core asset: "Jimmy's has built an outstanding team, a strong culture and a reputation for delivering innovative products and service. Together, we'll build on that foundation as we continue investing in our customers, our people, and the future of our business."
Howard Hirsch, CEO of Jimmy's, framed the transaction as a growth enabler for his team, while Michael Pisani, President of Jimmy's, noted that access to Rise's broader resources would support expanded innovation and customer service capacity. Both executives remain in place through the transition.
For foodservice operators sourcing cookies, artisan breads, or private-label baked goods, the near-term takeaway is continuity: existing programs and account relationships carry forward under the same teams. Longer term, the combined manufacturing network — spanning the Midwest and now the Northeast — positions Rise to offer more responsive regional distribution, a factor that matters for large chain operators managing freight costs and freshness windows on ambient and thaw-and-sell SKUs.
The bakery manufacturing segment has seen steady consolidation as larger platform companies acquire regional specialists to expand geographic reach and category coverage. Rise's acquisition of Jimmy's fits that pattern, and with in-store bakery and foodservice supplier M&A remaining active, the deal signals continued appetite among scale players to build out full-service bakery supply solutions for multi-unit and grocery operators. Operators evaluating thaw-and-sell bakery program sourcing will find a broader Rise portfolio emerging from this combination.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
