Aspire Bakeries, the US-based company that is Aryzta’s former North American operation, will invest in manufacturing amid rising sales of Otis Spunkmeyer products.

The company, renamed by the new owner Lindsay Goldberg, is expanding capacities at a plant in Newark, California.

Aspire Bakeries said it would add a frozen cookie dough line for its Otis Spunkmeyer branded cookies, highlighting growing sales „in the cookie category, as well as in the foodservice, convenience and retail sectors.”

Laura Shannon, chief operations officer at Aspire Bakeries, said there had been „an increase in demand” for the cookies without providing any data.

The new production line increases Aspire Bakeries’ capacity for its Otis Spunkmeyer branded and custom frozen cookie dough, which is sold in frozen pucks to food service, retail and convenience operators and freshly baked on site. Production starts in autumn.

Aspire Bakeries is also building a „Sweet Bakery Innovation Lab” in the Newark factory.

The Swiss-based bakery group Aryzta sold its North American business to a subsidiary of the US private equity firm Lindsay Goldberg in March.

Aryzta had seen sales and profits shrink in recent years. The company has also amassed a significant mountain of debt, with former CEO Kevin Toland, who left the company in November, prompting the divestment of non-core assets. In the meantime, Aryzta’s two largest investors – Cobas Asset Management and Veraison Cital – had demanded further divestments and pushed for a simplified business model in order to turn the company inside out. Aryzta is now focusing its efforts on Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.