Expertise....... Excellence....... Pre-eminence.......

It takes a long time to develop these attributes. The Bachman Company has had over 120 years to become a pre-eminent manufacturer in the snack business, to develop the brand image and prestige that can only come from selling a quality product to generations of consumers.

Bachman went into business in 1884 with just one product - Pretzels. Even the Bachman logo suggests how closely associated this product is with the Bachman name. No one bakes a better Pretzel than Bachman. We will never compromise on that standard.

J. S. Bachman, the German-American who founded the company in Reading, Pennsylvania, could hardly have imagined that his name would become a household word throughout the Eastern U. S. After all, he had but one small oven and one horse-drawn delivery cart. His product was hand-made and packed, and his sales amounted to only a few thousand dollars.

Making pretzels was hardly a new idea. By 1884, the pretzel had been known in Europe for nearly 13 centuries. In America though, Bachman's bakery was one of the first.

In the early 1930's, Art and Ray McGonigle bought the Bachman business and over the next 40 years built Bachman into one of the top five snack companies in the country. To Bachman's historic quality image, the McGonigles added sound business management and technological innovation including the invention of the first automatic pretzel twisting machine by one of the company's engineers. Today, Bachman is the only major company still producing an authentic thin twisted pretzel.

Through the 1950's and 60's, Bachman continued to expand its products and geography and by 1976, Bachman Foods, as it was then known, was among the most diversified, rapidly growing snack companies. Unfortunately, this was not to continue when ownership passed to the Culbro Corporation, whose principal business was cigars and tobacco products. Under Culbro's ownership, Bachman's headquarters were moved from Reading to New York and changes followed quickly. Clearly aiming for national distribution, Culbro invested in a greatly expanded management superstructure and segmented the Bachman line into separate brand management units, all but abandoning the Bachman name except for Pretzel and Jax Cheese Curl products.

By 1979 market shares for many of Bachman's products had fallen drastically, and a very real threat existed that Bachman would cease operation totally after ninety-five years in the marketplace. However, in early 1980, The Bachman Company was purchased by Joseph F. Welch, a real estate developer and entrepreneur.

Joe Welch returned Bachman to its roots, not only restoring its headquarters to Reading, but also recommitting the company to the basic Bachman principles of expertise, excellence and pre-eminence. Fortunately during the Culbro years, product quality standards were never compromised, and the consumer remained staunchly loyal to products carrying the Bachman name. Since 1980, Bachman has once again flourished under Joe Welch's leadership, and Bachman Pretzels and Jax have established #1 or #2 positions in markets throughout the northeastern United States.

Bachman is committed to preserving the company's heritage of quality, not just in Pretzels and Jax, but in all its products and has continued to invest in major plant expansions and state of the art equipment. The company is committed to service and responsiveness to retail customers with a modern truck fleet and direct store door delivery distributor network. Bachman is also committed to repaying loyal Bachman consumers with the greatest value, freshest products, and exciting new items while continuing to build brand awareness through its recently launched new media advertising campaign and consumer program.

Though many changes have taken place in Mr. Bachman's Bakery over the years, his insistence on quality will never change. Today with modern facilities and food processing machinery turning out a growing variety of delicious and nutritious snack foods, consumers can still count on that same old fashioned quality that has built the Bachman reputation.