"Bronx Cookie Factory Stella D'oro Announces Closure," Democracy Now!, 9/11/09
In New York, a Bronx cookie factory is closing its doors just weeks after its striking workers won a long-running dispute for back wages and reinstatement. The Connecticut-based private equity fund Brynwood Partners says it has sold the Stella D’Oro Biscuit Company to another firm that wants to move it to Ohio. Stella D’Oro workers returned to the job in July after winning an eleven-month strike against pay cuts and benefit losses. Brynwood says it was forced to sell the factory because the workers wouldn’t accept the cuts. The workers say they plan to fight the sale to keep their jobs. Read more.
"Workers shudder over Stella D'oro cookie factory shuttering in the Bronx," The New York Daily News, 9/11/09
Workers at the Stella D'oro cookie factory in the Bronx were still in shock Thursday as the news sunk in that the business had been sold and was moving to Ohio.
They wondered how they'd pay their rents and mortgages, how they'd find another job in today's recession and what they'd do without health insurance. Read more.
"Stella D'oro, longtime Bronx Italian cookie and breadstick baker, set to move operations to Ohio," The New York Daily News, 9/10/09
Bye-bye, biscotti.
The owners of Stella D'oro, the longtime Bronx Italian cookie and breadstick baker, said Wednesday they have sold the company - and its operations will be moving to Ohio by the end of the month.
Some 150 union and other plant workers will be out on the street. Read more.
"Stella D'oro set to close doors for good," ABC, 9/10/09
BRONX (WABC) -- A popular Italian cookie and breadstick maker in the Bronx is moving to Ohio. Stella D'Oro is closing its bakery, and that will leave scores of people without jobs.
"They're evil people," worker Evelyn Rivera said. "And it's not right, what they're doing."
Rivera is just one of nearly 150 workers at Stella D'Oro who just found out that in two and a half weeks, they'll be let go.
"We're going to fight," worker George Kahssay said. "We're fighters. We never give up, and it's not over until it's over." Watch the video.
"Stella D'oro Owners Sell Brand, Move Operations to Ohio," NY1, 9/10/09
Italian cookie and breadstick maker Stella D'Oro is closing its doors after decades in the Bronx, leaving the fate of dozens of employees uncertain.
Stella D'Oro's owners, Brynwood Partners has sold the brand to Lance Incorporated, which is moving the operations to Ohio.
The move comes after Brynwood could not agree over wage concessions with Local 50. Read more.
"Lance to add Italian-style baked goods," Ashland Times-Gazette, 9/10/09
The local Lance bakery will add Italian-styled baked goods to its production lines in the future.
Lance Inc., which purchased the Claremont Avenue bakery and the Archway brand in a December 2008 bankruptcy auction, late Tuesday announced its plans to purchase the New York-based Stella D'oro brand and move production of the brand to the Ashland bakery. Company officials were unsure exactly what it might mean for the local plant in terms of additonal employees.
Stella D'oro Biscuit Co. -- a 77-year-old manufacturer of Italian-style baked goods, including breadsticks, biscotti and cookies -- plans to close its Bronx bakery this fall, leaving about 130 workers unemployed. Stella D'oro, which is owned by Greenwich, Conn.-based private equity firm Brynwood Partners, had announced its plans to shut down the bakery following a 10-month workers' strike. Read more.
"Engineer has tools to keep the cookies coming," The Riverdale Press, 9/10/09
The task before a cookie eater is simple enough: unwrap the plastic, place the sweetened morsel between the tongue and roof of the mouth, and chew.
But in cookie production, as in life, there is sweat behind even the most indulgent pleasures.
Alex Nardella works at the Stella D’oro factory in Kinsbridge. He is one of the people whose brains and hands are not only behind the cookies, but also behind the men and women who bake them. Read more.
"Stella D'oro Sale Means Black & White Flight Out of the Bronx," Gothamist, 9/10/09
Stella D'Oro, the local makers of cookies and breadsticks that you used to be able to take almost anywhere, has been sold and is leaving its longtime home up in the Bronx. Earlier this summer, workers of the Kingsbridge cookie factory were put on a roller coaster ride when a judge ruled in their favor of their yearlong strike only to be told by owners Brynwood Partners that the court's costly decision was prompting a shut down the factory. Read more.
Yoji Sugaya, a long-time Stella D'oro supporter from Japan, has sent this slideshow of photographs from his time with us in New York to remind workers and supporters alike how hard and long we have fought and to encourage us to keep moving forward!
No matter how long it takes -- we won't give up!
"Lance is buying Stella D'oro," The News & Observer, 9/10/09
Snack-maker Lance will soon start making Stella D'oro brand cookies and breadsticks, bringing into its growing snack empire the products of a 78-year-old New York bakery.
Lance said it is buying the brands of Stella D'oro Biscuit Co. products -- which include Italian-inspired breadsticks, cookies and biscotti -- and producing them at its bakery in Ashland, Ohio. Read more.
