Operating in the Midwest since 1967, New Horizons Baking has carved out a niche for itself by delivering high-quality baked goods and providing exceptional customer service and price. A Minority Business Enterprise and member of the Northern Ohio Minority Business Council, New Horizons currently serves customers across the country with its highest concentration in the Midwest.
“In today’s market, you won’t see a New Horizons label sitting on a shelf at a local grocery store,” President and COO Ron Jones says. “We instead provide baking services for others, and we do a lot of co-packing.”
Strong Reputation
As an organization, New Horizons Baking strives to be a premier baker known for quality service and products. It believes in producing high-quality baked goods that are responsibly sourced, as well as providing growth opportunities for employees while giving back to its communities and protecting the environment.
The company works with a wide array of customers, many of which are leaders in the quick-service restaurant and foodservice industry. New Horizons Baking’s business has been built by establishing trust with customers, protecting customer brands and putting customers’ interests first.
New Horizons Baking’s primary skillset and focus is on products such as English muffins and what the company refers to as soft rolls. In that area, the company can produce a wide variety of slider rolls, dinner rolls, hot dog buns, hoagies and hamburger buns. The company operates production lines out of plants in Norwalk, Ohio, and Fremont, Ind., and it will soon open a third production facility based in Toledo, Ohio.
“We offer a full range of services, and we focus on customer segments that include quick-service restaurants, wholesale providers, foodservice providers and large retail outlets,” Jones says. “Those are our target areas. We have an active salesforce that is going out and making pitches to customers, giving them ideas and letting people know what we do. Our reputation and ability to perform has expanded, and that has allowed us to grow our opportunity to support other industry players.”
Effort to Diversify
The company engages in a considerable amount of industry research as it looks for ways to improve and grow its product and service offerings. New Horizons Baking works closely with its suppliers to understand industry trends and stay on top of what is happening in its markets.
“We focus a lot internally on our people and their development,” Jones says. “It is our people who make all the difference in what we do and how we do it. As long as we continue to invest in training our people internally and externally, as well as investing in new technology, we will have the quality of employees and products that we need to serve customers.”
Investments in people, plants and equipment while keeping abreast of industry developments are helping New Horizons Baking pursue innovation and ensure quality.
“We see an industry that is seeking new and innovative quality products and services, and for us to be able to continue to deliver, we needed to invest into an additional plant,” Jones says. “Toledo is a good location because it allows us to support our growth strategy and enhance our infrastructure. We will be calculated about how we move forward and grow within the scope that has always been our core.”
As New Horizons Baking looks to the future, it will look for areas where it can invest in product and service diversification. The company isn’t interested in becoming everything to everyone, but it does believe there are additional areas in the market where it can find success.
“Diversification will help in our effort to strategically position ourselves to find areas that are synergistic to our core competencies,” Jones says. “We will be careful about expansion, developing our people and processes while looking for expansion opportunities. We are excited about our future and the opportunities that are available in the market. We realize there are a variety of industry segments that we can enter, and we look forward to getting into them in our pursuit of growth.”