Collin Street Bakery

Collin Street Bakery sign in Corsicana, Texas.
Collin Street Bakery
Founded 1896
Founder Gus Weidmann
Tom McElwee
Headquarters Corsicana, Texas, USA
Number of locations
 Waco, Texas, Lindale, Texas, Greenville, Texas
Products Fruitcake
Other Holiday cakes
Number of employees
 600+ (during Christmas shipping season)
Website www.collinstreet.com

The Collin Street Bakery is world renowned for its fruitcakes, and is located in Corsicana, Texas, USA. its products are shipped to all US states, overseas possessions and 195 countries.

The Bakery is the recipient of the "E-Award" from the US president.

Early history

The bakery was founded in 1896 by August Wiederman, an immigrant from Wiesbaden, Germany.[1] With the help of local entrepreneur Tom McElwee, the bakery soon outgrew its original building, and required a new one in which the second floor was turned into a hotel. Celebrities such as Enrico Caruso and Will Rogers were sighted at the bakery, and in 1914 the Ringling Brothers Circus passed through town and ordered dozens of fruitcakes as Christmas gifts to be mailed to friends and family across the globe. In this way, the bakery entered the mail-order business. Lee W. McNutt, Harry Cook and Bob Rutherford purchased the bakery from Mr. Wiedmann in 1946.

Mail order sales

In reference to the mail order business started in 1947, bakery employees copied names and addresses from a myriad of phone books for "prospecting" list. The late L.W. McNutt Jr. initiated a direct marketing campaign to international customers. Under his expert direction, the bakery began accepting orders by mail, phone, fax and online. He also pioneered the use of a computerized database and also fine-tuned shipping methods to make delivery of the cakes more efficient. The third generation CEO, Bob McNutt has continued to refine all of these methods put in place by his father, L.W.

Notable clients

The descendants of the Ringling circus continue to order cakes. Monaco's Princess Caroline also places an annual order, continuing her mother, Princess Grace's tradition of a Christmas DeLuxe fruitcake for their family and friends.[2] Hilton Hotels are a longtime customer, as is Master Builders, S.A. of Brussels, Belgium. Also counted in the above group is Madison Square Gardens and the famous Vanna White. The company rejected an order from Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini following the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. The DeLuxe Fruitcake is shipped to all countries except Cuba and Iran.

Statistics

Fruitcake accounts for 98 percent of the bakery's total sales. The company sells about 3 million pounds of fruitcake each year, which equates to 1.5 million individual cakes.

The majority of orders are placed by mail, and during October to November.

Despite the heavy demand, the bakery does not have a distributor, but sells its branded goods only at its 2 Corsicana stores and new location in Waco, Hilsboro, Lindale, and through mail-order. In the past some specialty Supermarkets, such as the defunct Amarraca in Pittsburgh's North Hills, have sold a private label version of the fruitcake.

References

  1. ↑ Texas State Historical Commission. "Collin Street Bakery State Historical Marker".
  2. ↑ Watson, Sharon (December 14, 1981), "Nuttier Than a Fruitcake? That's Hard with the Tons of Pecans Packed in These Texas Delights", People Magazine 16 (24)

External links