Izzio to go national, with gluten: Founder of Udi’s fills a niche that’s kneaded

LOUISVILLE — With the sale three years ago of nationally known Udi’s brand and the gluten-free part of the company to Boulder Brands, the sellers the bread makers and business people of the company newly named U Baron Group are back to square one: filling the need for handmade breads made with old-world techniques. The plan is to go national again, but this time take the gluten along for the ride.

It’s a different-looking square one than it was nearly 20 years ago when Etai Baron set up a catering business here but found he couldn’t buy the bread he wanted to make high-quality sandwiches. He then filled his own need by hiring Master Baker Maurizio Negrini to help him develop a line of artisan breads. This eventually led to building a bakery in Louisville and developing granola and gluten-free products, which led Udi’s to become one of the best known gluten-free bread brands in America. The Udi’s name, as well as the gluten-free and granola parts of the business, sold for $125 million in 2012 to Boulder Brands which also owns evol, Smart Balance, Glutino and Level Life. The family of Udi Baron, E&A Industries, an Indianapolis-based investment firm, and other minority holders all were involved in the sale. Baron partnered with E&A Industries three years ago to launch the gluten-free bakery line of Udi’s.

Today, square one for U Baron is a lot bigger than it was when Baron first set up shop in 1994. There is Etai’s Catering, six Etai’s Bakery Cafes, two full-service restaurants, Silvi’s Kitchen, and, in Denver, The Good Son, a Detroit Style Pizza Taphouse & Bar. The Louisville restaurant at 185 S. 104th St. in the Colorado Technological Center closed in 2011 to expand that building for production only into the 25,000-square-foot European-style artisan bakery, Izzio, in Louisville.

According to Erez Heiman, U Baron’s creative and marketing director, two additional European-style bread stands are scheduled to open late next summer – one at 2501 Dallas St. in Aurora and the other at Larimer Market Place, 28th and Larimar streets in Denver. At the latter location, U Baron is renovating a historic building and will be one of the biggest tenants. In addition to the cafes, products already are sold in King Soopers, Trader Joe’s, Sprouts and five farmer’s markets in Colorado.

Having sold the old brand, extensive rebranding has had to take place. This huge, two-year project has involved building new logos, finding a new shade of orange since the old shade was off limits because of the Udi’s sale, and, since the Udi’s name was sold along with the gluten-free lines, renaming the business.

Keeping the Udi’s name was impossible because that part of the business grew too fast, according to Heiman. (The new owners of Udi’s aren’t using the same logo, but it’s still off limits, Heiman said.) To help with rebranding, Heiman created a naming campaign where customers were asked to offer names.

“We got amazing feedback with focus groups to see what values connected us to our customers,” he said. “For the name campaign, we got 1,200 different names. We found three names we liked.”

Izzio Artisan Bakery comes from the nickname for head baker Maurizio Negrini. The café and catering part of the business are Etai’s Cafes and Etai’s Catering, after Etai Baron, company co-founder and chief executive. The restaurants are Silvi’s Kitchen after Udi Baron’s mother.

The strategy they are working on now, Heiman said, is to expand three “programs” for the national market. A par-baked bread – 90 percent baked and then frozen and finished by King Soopers or Sprouts and then bagged using Izzio bags – is the first. The second is a take-and-bake kind of idea where grocery customers take the same product home and bake it there. The third is sliced sandwich bread. Developing these products involved buying a huge freezer, big enough to drive a car into, to test and pre-freeze the breads.

“We have to take bread that used to only be sold fresh to be distributed frozen. It’s taking some changes in packaging. We also are figuring out the right process for bread that is frozen,” Heiman said. It’s a challenge, but he’s optimistic about the future.

“Izzio Artisan Bakery will be huge,” he said. “Nobody is doing what we are doing, bringing farmer’s market style bread national.”

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