As America’s oldest flour company, King Arthur Baking Co. has seen a lot. It opened in 1790, when George Washington was president.for King Arthur's products jumped six-fold almost overnight. The company, based in Norwich, Vermont, scrambled to manage supply chains, ramp up production and to focus on in-demand items like bread flour.CEO Karen Colberg, who worked in marketing at Gap Inc. before joining King Arthur in 2005, says the company leaned into its strengths.
The Associated Press spoke with Colberg about King Arthur’s growth and its unusual structure as an employee-owned company. Her comments have been edited for length and clarity.A. We believe our product is a very good value, particularly for the heavy baker, because of the performance and the consistency. Baking is not only an escape -- people say they do it for stress relief -- but it’s also a less expensive way to bake a nice artisan loaf of bread.
A. We have, over the past 10 years, really focused on innovation. We introduced gluten-free versions of our bread flour, and that was incredibly innovative because often people who are gluten-free have to give up bread. It’s one of the things we hear about the most, when you think about what problems we need to solve for bakers. And then most recently we introduced our bread mix kits. They’re basics: pretzel bites, focaccia. They go from box to table in about an hour. And that’s transformative.