Holsum Bread is an American brand of packaged sliced white bread. The Holsum name was being used by many retail bakeries, independently, around the country by the early 1900s. In 1908, the W. E. Long Company of Chicago acquired exclusive national rights to the name and formed a cooperative of bakeries to market a single recipe under the brand name Holsum in various cities. One of the largest and earliest of the Long Company member bakeries still in operation is the Phoenix Bakery, which was renamed the Holsum Bakery in 1929 after then owners Lloyd Eisele and Charles Becker purchased from the Long Company the rights to use the Holsum name for their bakery and its bread .[1]
The Long Company[2] was named after its founder William Edgar Long. In 1928, Long created and pioneered the concept of packaging sliced bread two years before the Wonder brand of packaged sliced bread appeared on store shelves. The Holsum brand name remains a registered trademark of the Long Company cooperative, which has expanded across the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Member distributors include: the aforementioned Holsum Bakery, Inc.; Interstate Brands Corp.; Sara Lee Bakery Group; Pan-O-Gold Baking Co.; Gold Medal Bakery, Inc.; Holsum of Fort Wayne, Inc.; Derst Baking Co.; Flowers Industries, Inc.; Butter Krust Baking Co., Inc.; and Perfection Bakeries, Inc.
Flowers Foods, one of the southern U.S. region distributors, bought the Phoenix-based Holsum Bakery in 2008.[3]