Family tradition meets innovation to create Neri’s Bakery Products’ delicious baked goods
There’s nothing better than the smell of freshly baked bread, or the seasonal aroma of cinnamon buns rising in the oven. On the streets of Port Chester, New York, the home of the renowned bakery, Neri’s Bakery Products, (Neri’s) these smells are all too familiar.
Family-owned since 1910, Neri’s claims to be ‘America’s favorite bakery’, priding itself on consistently delivering the finest, high-quality products while embracing values of excellence and efficiency. From its state-of-the-art facility, Neri’s produces baked goods like bread, buns, cookies, muffins, pies, and pastries for its own brand, as well as a plethora of retail and wholesale clients.
The bakery’s family-operated legacy remains strong with the family’s fourth generation recently stepping up to take over operations. We sit down with Brett Neri, Vice President of Compliance, to learn more about the company’s evolution and how, along with fellow family members, she plans to lead Neri’s into a new generation of success.
“I’ve been involved in this business my entire life, not just professionally, but also personally,” Brett opens. “Neri’s is a family-owned business established by my great-grandfather 120 years ago, and although it’s rare to find a successful family business in its fourth generation, we’re a close-knit family who excel at working collaboratively.
“Today, the business has been completely taken over by the fourth generation; myself, my brother, Anthony, and my cousins, Anthony Frank, and Salvatore. We all have separate titles and roles that cater to our areas of expertise. Anthony Frank is our Vice President of Production, and Salvatore is Vice President of Sweet Goods. Anthony is our Chief Financial Officer, managing our day-to-day financial operations, and without him, the business wouldn’t be able to continue. His role lies at the heart of the business and we’re grateful to have him at the helm to oversee our spending and keep us grounded.
“As a family-owned business, we have a small upper management team of around 15 people,” she continues. “Four of us are Neri family members and there’s a clear ambition to continue the legacy our grandparents worked so hard to create. This approach extends to our supply network too. We operate a policy of replying to our customers or suppliers almost immediately, ensuring we maintain open channels of communication. Rather than strictly professional relationships, we strive to establish personal relationships with our suppliers and customers, as this helps to maintain strong and reliable partnerships.”
Longstanding legacy
Neri’s has evolved significantly since its humble beginnings with just one bread oven in a garage in Port Chester. “We’ve remained in the same town, but we’ve grown substantially to our current 400,000-square-foot facility, which makes us the largest manufacturing company in the area,” Brett narrates. “With more than 400 employees, we’re able to run our production schedule day and night to ensure high efficiency and productivity.”
Elaborating on the business model, Brett continues: “We supply to both retail and wholesale customers. On the retail side, we have a small, yet wildly successful storefront next to our factory in Port Chester, which has the same opening hours of 7am to 7.30pm. We have 14 chefs responsible for retail production, working around the clock to produce cakes, cookies, pies, muffins, or other baked goods for customers to order and collect.
“On the wholesale side, we have regular customers who order from us each day, many of which are large chain companies that then distribute our products across the US. For some clients, we also produce baked goods to be sold under their brand. This department is not like cooking in a kitchen; we have industrial mixers, such as a dough mixer with a minimum capacity of 2000 pounds, to enable large-scale production.
“In terms of our product evolution, our initial core product was different breads. Our next biggest line was producing bagels, and then we established a buns department around ten years ago to make hot dog rolls and hamburger buns. More recently, we decided to expand our sweet goods offering and invested in a new department to diversify our portfolio with products like cinnamon buns, crumb cakes, and gourmet liquor cakes.
“We started the department from scratch, optimizing unused space on our site’s third floor,” she recalls. “We already had an oven there, but we purchased all new machinery to create separate lines for our cinnamon buns and liquor cakes, so they just share a cooling conveyor. The department has seen instant success beyond our expectations; we’re producing cinnamon buns for several food retailers, as well as supplying supermarkets with liquor cakes.
“For our baked breads and bagels specifically, we conducted research and development to find the perfect recipe. Within the organization, we call Anthony Frank
the ‘chemist,’ as he has inherited the family gene for baking; he can simply look at a product and immediately tell you whether it needs more flour or longer in the oven, for example. Although I worked on all the compliance documentation, Anthony Frank is the brains behind creating and executing all our recipes.
“Salvatore, on the other hand, is the brains behind our sweet goods and pastry division. He regularly creates new and delicious products, while also taking inspiration from our Nonna’s recipes to continue our longstanding legacy. With our retail store in constant demand, Salvatore is crucial in maintaining the quality and success we’ve become known for.”
Succession strategy
To cope with such high demand, Neri’s is on a path of expansion. “We’re continuing to explore expansion in the grocery sector, and I’m pleased to tell you that we’ve just finalized a deal with a very large grocery chain,” Brett reveals. “There are several challenges in the grocery market, as it is entirely different to wholesale with enhanced regulation and frequent customer audits.
“We will be adding a storage facility to our site to manage increased demand. We acquired air rights from a parking lot adjacent to our factory and we’re planning to build up and attach a 60,000-square-foot storage warehouse to our current building. We also decided to purchase another oven, bringing us to a total of eight ovens throughout our whole operation.
“We’re looking to complete this project in 2025, and we’re currently going through the design phase to ensure the zones are optimized for our operations. Staffing is not the easiest task at the moment, but we’re aiming to recruit around 30-to-40 people to facilitate this expansion. We encourage local people to apply and while we give every applicant a fair chance, we take pride in recommendations from current employees.”
On the topic of employees, Brett adds: “A significant portion of our 450 employees have been with us for more than 20 years. The longevity of their employment is testament to our family and how we operate as an organization with competitive salaries and team bonding activities. However, some of our staff are nearing retirement and we’ve brought in lots of new talent to ease this transition. In recent years, for instance, we’ve recruited new logistics and accounting professionals to lead the business into a new generation.”
As our conversation ends, Brett shares Neri’s short-term goals, as well as a vision for further afield. “We’re currently focused on growing our sweet goods line by targeting some of our larger clients for sales,” she says. “Cinnamon buns and crumb cakes are, of course, different to bread and bagels; it’s a different department in grocery stores and we’re still learning how to navigate the market and its food safety regulations.
“We’re also determined to complete zoning in preparation for the site’s expansion by the end of the year, as we’re aiming to start construction in January 2025,” Brett concludes. “As we continue in our fathers’ footsteps, the four of us are incredibly grateful to them for paving the way and supporting us as we lead Neri’s into a new generation.