Schmidt Baking Company is a bakery in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The company makes Schmidt's Blue Ribbon and Schmidt's Old Tyme Breads and, as a licensee of the Quality Bakers of America Cooperative, bakes and distributes Sunbeam Bread in its territory.
It was founded in Baltimore, Maryland in 1886 by Elizabeth and Peter Schmidt at their house using recipes from their native Germany. The company now has more than 800 employees and makes several varieties of bread, most prominently white bread.
Its 1970s and 1980s advertising jingle was "I like bread and butter, I like toast and jam, I like Schmidt's Blue Ribbon Bread, It's my favorite brand", which was derived from The Newbeats 1964 song, "Bread and Butter".
There was a major fire at an empty building owned by the company on Fitch Lane in Fullerton, Maryland in April 2008.
In 1941, the company was cited by the National Labor Relations Board for failing to engage in collective bargaining with its employees.
The company sponsored the Preakness Stakes pre-race parade in Baltimore for three years.
In 1996, the company was the subject of an IRS lawsuit regarding when vacation pay and severance pay can be considered deferred compensation by a company in its tax returns. The resulting ruling on this case was used in proposed changes to the law.
In 2012 Schmidt acquired the rights to Holsum and Milano in Harrisburg and Scranton from Bimbo Bakeries USA.
Famous quotes containing the words baking and/or company:
“There was no speculation so promising, or at the same time so praisworthy, as the United Metropolitan Improved Hot Muffin and Crumpet Baking and Punctual Delivery Company.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“The old idea that the joke was not good enough for the company has been superseded by the new aristocratic idea that the company was not worthy of the joke. They have introduced an almost insane individualism into that one form of intercourse which is specially and uproariously communal. They have made even levities into secrets. They have made laughter lonelier than tears.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)