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Rainbo Baking Co., which has been baking bread here for the past 47 years, is no more.
Rainbo’s parent company, Campbell Taggart Inc., has changed its name and the names of all its bakeries to The Earthgrains Co.
The move is part of a corporate restructuring that includes spinning Campbell Taggart off from Anheuser-Busch Cos. later this month. Anheuser-Busch bought Campbell Taggart in 1982.
The Earthgrains Co., based in Clayton, Mo., will become an independent public company. Anheuser-Busch shareholders will get one share of Earthgrains Co. common stock for every 25 shares of Anheuser-Busch they own.
“Our plant will be known by our company name instead of our brand name,’ said Earthgrain’s Tucson plant manager, Jim Underhill.
The bakery, at 827 E. 17th St., has a banner hanging outside to announce the name change. The banner will be replaced with a permanent sign. The trucks will be repainted during the next year, Underhill said.
Major Earthgrains brands include Merico refrigerated dough, such as cinnamon rolls, biscuits and cookies; Colonial, Rainbo, IronKids, Earth Grains and Grant’s Farm breads, buns and rolls; and Break Cake snack cakes.
The local bakery, which employs 150 people, makes bread and buns only.
The name change was necessary, said Barry Beracha, Earthgrains chairman and chief executive. “While our brand commands consumer respect and recognition, our research showed that few people, including consumers of our brands, knew Campbell Taggart or what we represented.’
Photos by GARY GAYNOR/Tucson Citizen
Manager Jim Underhill watches just-cooled loaves head toward the slicer before being packaged at the newly renamed Earthgrains Co. bakery here.
John Dolph pulls almost 1,500 pounds of bread dough from a mixing machine.