What Ellison Bakery does

Ellison Bakery, founded in 1945 and headquartered in a single Fort Wayne, Indiana facility, is a contract and private-label manufacturer of cookies, snack bars, ice cream cookies, inclusions, crunches, toppings, and pie crust components. Its core manufacturing platform comprises three production lines: two Baker Perkins ovens (48-inch, 120-ft two-zone; and 39-inch, 150-ft three-zone) and a Reading Bakery Systems indirect-fired tunnel oven installed in 2015, supported by 2,400-lb Shaffer/Bundy mixers, servo-driven wire-cutters, and approximately two dozen rotary dies. Process automation includes ERP-integrated computerized batching, custom oven control systems, a vision-based SPC inspection system that emails QA/R&D alerts on out-of-parameter cookies, and a flexible segregation system allowing simultaneous production and cleaning across lines.

The company generates revenue through four B2B streams: private-label retail cookies (including the Ella's Oven™ brand and store-brand packaging), industrial ingredient supply (inclusions, crunches, cookie pieces) for ice cream, yogurt, confectionery, and protein bar manufacturers, food service and K-12 school programs with Smart Snack-compliant products, and custom contract manufacturing. Go-to-market is direct-sales-led with embedded OEM-style product development (3-month to 2-year concept-to-launch cycles), and certifications include SQF, RSPO, Fair Trade, Kosher, and Rainforest Alliance. The customer base spans enterprise food manufacturers (anonymized as 'some of the largest ice cream manufacturers globally'), retail grocery chains, and institutional food service buyers.

Ownership transitioned from the founding Ellis family to Blackford Capital in 2017 and then to Tilia Holdings (Chicago-based PE firm focused on the food supply chain) in August 2020. Current leadership retains continuity: Stephanie Chattillion (CEO), Rob Ellis (Chairman), Todd Wallin (President since 2010), Jeremy Ellis (QA/R&D Manager), and Jon Ellis (Plant Manager). Headcount grew from approximately 85 to 120 employees with the Line 3 expansion, and the facility has undergone multiple expansions (2000, 2006) plus the 2016-2017 construction of a Customer Innovation Center. Production lines currently operate at 45-85% utilization, leaving material headroom for incremental volume.

Name

Ellison Bakery

Legal name

Ellison Bakery LLC

Website

https://ebakery.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1945

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Ellison Bakery is a Fort Wayne, Indiana contract and private-label manufacturer of cookies, ice cream inclusions, snack bars, crunches, and toppings serving industrial food manufacturers, retail private-label customers, and K-12 food service since 1945.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Commercial Bakery / Cookie Manufacturing

NAICS

Cookie and Cracker Manufacturing (311821), Commercial Bakeries (311812), Frozen Cakes, Pies, and Other Pastries Manufacturing (311813)

SIC

Cookies & Crackers (2052), Bakery Products (2050)

akta.pro primary industry

Cookies, Biscuits & Crackers Manufacturing (AFAKAAAC)

akta.pro secondary industries

Private Label & Contract Bakery Wholesale (AFAIAFAK), Frozen Bakery Products Manufacturing (AFAKAAAF)

Keywords

• Cookie manufacturer
• Private label bakery
• Ice cream inclusions
• Baked snack bars
• Food ingredient supplier

Headquarters

HQ city

Fort Wayne

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Personnel, Supply Chain, Operations, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Private Label Manufacturing: Manufactures cookies and baked goods under retail customer brand names. Products include mini cookies, soft cookies, thin & crispy cookies available in various flavors. Revenue generated through bulk production orders with various packaging options including individually wrapped, over-wrapped trays, bulk packed, and gable-top cartons.
2. Industrial Ingredients: Provides cookie-based ingredients (inclusions, crunches, toppings, cookie pieces) to food manufacturers for use in ice cream, yogurt, confectionery, protein bars, and other products. Products are customized for moisture migration needs and specific dimensional specifications.
3. Food Service Products: Supplies wholesome cookies, bars, and crackers to food service customers and schools. Develops Smart Snack compliant, whole grain, and all-natural products. Products include breakfast bars, snack bars, mini cookies packaged in single-serve bags for schools and organizations.
4. Contract Manufacturing: Formulates, develops, and manufactures cookies, crunches, inclusions, bars, and other baked goods for business customers under various contractual arrangements.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

Ellison Bakery is a contract and private label manufacturer of cookies, ice cream cookies, brownies, snack and breakfast bars, and cookie-based inclusions, crunches, and toppings produced on three commercial production lines. The company formulates, develops, and ships these products to industrial food manufacturers, retail private label customers, and food service/school buyers, with custom formulations including moisture-migration-engineered items for ice cream sandwich and inclusion applications. Products are sold under the company's Ella's Oven™ retail brand as well as under customer private label and bulk industrial formats.

Product overview

Ellison Bakery is a bakery solutions provider offering a diversified portfolio of cookie, bar, crunch, topping, coating, and inclusion products. The company's product architecture centers on core cookie manufacturing capabilities (cookies, ice cream cookies, brownies) supplemented by ingredient/product components (inclusions, crunches) for industrial customers. Products serve three primary channels: retail (Ella's Oven™ branded and private label), food service/school nutrition, and industrial/manufacturing (inclusions for ice cream, yogurt, confectionery). The company's differentiation lies in customization capabilities, moisture migration formulation expertise for ice cream applications, and flexibility in production runs from small volumes to millions of cookies.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Ella's Oven™: Brand of cookies baked and marketed by Ellison Bakery in many popular flavors for retail customers.

Products and services

• Cookies Standard to indulgent cookies across mini, thin & crispy, soft, and rotary shaped varieties, available in multiple flavors and customized for retail private label, food service, and industrial ingredient applications.
• Soft Cookies Soft baked cookies with fresh-from-the-oven texture, offered in off-the-shelf flavors or customizable formulations and packaged as individually wrapped, over-wrapped trays, or gable-top cartons for retail and food service customers.
• Thin & Crispy Cookies Thin, crispy cookies made with real butter and all-natural ingredients, available in oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, and lemon flavors, packaged 14.5oz per gable top carton for retail and food service.
• Mini Cookies Small bite-size crunchy cookies offered in flavors including oatmeal raisin, salted caramel, birthday cake, and double chocolate, with packaging sizes ranging from 1oz bags to 8oz bag-in-box for retail and food service.
• Rotary Shaped Cookies Poppable, on-the-go rotary-molded snacking cookies available in shapes including ABC Alphabet, Animal Cracker, Fall Seasonal, and Holiday Seasonal, with formulations available for private label retail or SMART snack school compliance.
• Ice Cream Cookies Cookies engineered with specific moisture migration characteristics for ice cream sandwiches, offered in wire cut and rotary molded options up to 4 inches in diameter, bulk packed 400-500 cookies per case for ice cream manufacturers.
• Ice Cream Brownies Brownie bars developed for ice cream inclusion applications with engineered moisture migration properties, available in square or rectangular shapes, bulk packed with 400-500 bars per case for industrial ice cream customers.
• Wire Cut Bars Wire cut breakfast and snack bars available with or without icing, typically oval, oblong, or round in shape, individually wrapped and sized for 1 or 2 grain equivalents with SMART snack compliance, whole grain, GMO free, and kosher options.
• Extruded Bars Extruded rectangular or square breakfast and snack bars available with or without icing, individually wrapped and bulk packaged, formable for SMART snack compliance, whole grain, GMO free, and kosher claims.
• Cookie Squares Mini cookie squares approximately 13-18mm rectangular pieces in flavors including chocolate chip, red velvet, mixed sugar cookie, graham, cinnamon, vanilla sugar, and pie crust, formulated to meet moisture migration requirements and customizable for specific customer claims.
• Cookie Pieces Broken cookie pieces in custom sizes and flavors for ice cream bar coating or ice cream inclusions, with optional oil coating available for reduced moisture migration.
• Cookie Bits Formed cookie pieces produced via molds in shapes such as round discs, ABCs, animal shapes, and custom formations for inclusion applications.
• Custom Inclusion Development Custom-developed cookie inclusions with unique molds meeting specific shape, size, and specification requirements from industrial food manufacturer customers.
• Donut Toppings Broken cookie pieces mixed with sugar for donut topping applications, with customizable flavor profiles, variable piece sizes, and no-added-sugar lower calorie options.
• Pie Crusts Cookie wafer pieces broken to customer specifications for pie crust applications, available in flavors including graham, chocolate, lemon, pink and vanilla, lemon and vanilla, strawberry and vanilla, almond, and vanilla and coconut.
• Yogurt Mix-Ins Cookie mix-ins for yogurt applications available in stock items or custom-developed options, with customizable shape, size, taste, color, and nutritional values, including gluten free options.
• Ella's Oven™ Brand Cookies Ella's Oven™ is Ellison Bakery's branded line of cookies marketed in many popular flavors and sold alongside store brand and private label cookie offerings through retail grocery channels.
• Contract Manufacturing and Custom Product Development End-to-end contract manufacturing service that formulates, develops, and manufactures cookies, crunches, inclusions, bars, and other baked goods for business customers under contractual arrangements, supporting customers from concept through launch.

Quantifiable outcome

• Production capacity expansion from 85 to 120 employees with third production line
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves12 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Cargill: Cargill is a diversified global food and ingredient conglomerate with significant bakery, cocoa, and inclusions businesses. It is comparable as a broad incumbent with similar B2B ingredient-supply relationships to large industrial food customers.
• Dawn Foods: Dawn Foods is a global bakery ingredient manufacturer serving retail bakers, foodservice, and industrial customers. It is broadly comparable to Ellison's commercial/industrial bakery business with a much larger scale and broader portfolio.
• McKee Foods: McKee Foods (Little Debbie, Drake's, Fieldstone) is one of the largest US cookie and snack cake producers. It is a broad incumbent in the cookie manufacturing space where Ellison competes for retail and private label accounts.
• Mondelez International: Mondelez is the global giant in cookies and baked snacks (Oreo, Chips Ahoy, belVita). As an overlap with Ellison's private label and industrial ingredients space it sets the competitive ceiling on scale and supply chain reach.
• Ardent Mills: Ardent Mills is a major North American flour milling and commercial baking ingredient supplier. It is a broad incumbent on the ingredient-supply side, overlapping with the upstream of Ellison's bakery operations and customer base.
• Kerry Group: Kerry Group is a global taste and nutrition ingredients supplier serving food, beverage, and ice cream manufacturers. It is comparable as a broad ingredient incumbent whose technology-and-formulation model parallels Ellison's R&D-intensive inclusion business.
• General Mills: General Mills operates large branded cookies, snacks, and Pillsbury bakery businesses, and is itself a major buyer of inclusions. It is a broad incumbent across the cookie/snack landscape and a potential Ellison customer-competitor at the intersection of branded and B2B.
• Lotus Bakeries: Lotus Bakeries is a global branded cookie and baked snack company (Biscoff, Nakd, KIND licensee). It is a broad incumbent comparable in product category and B2B2C cookie positioning with Ellison's branded and private label offerings.

Direct peers

• Voortman Cookies: Voortman is a private-label and branded cookie manufacturer serving retail grocery channels with a similar B2B sales motion. It is directly comparable to Ellison's private label and Ella's Oven™ retail business on size, customer profile, and product mix.
• Newly Weds Foods: Newly Weds Foods is a leading global supplier of food coatings, crumbles, and inclusions to ice cream, bakery, and confectionery manufacturers — the exact downstream customer set Ellison serves. It is the closest direct competitor in cookie-based industrial inclusions.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Compliance5 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles8 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Ellison Bakery