Thomas' is a brand of
English muffins
An English muffin is a small, round and flat yeast-leavened (sometimes sourdough) bread which is commonly round and tall. It is generally sliced horizontally and served Toast (food), toasted.David, Elizabeth (1977). ''English Bread and Yeast C ...
and
bagels in
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
, established in 1880. It is owned by
Bimbo Bakeries USA, one of the largest baking companies in the United States, which also owns
Entenmann's
Entenmann's is an American company that manufactures baked goods and delivers them throughout the United States to supermarkets and other retailers for sale to the public. The company offers dessert cakes, donuts, cookies, cup cakes, loaf cakes, ...
,
Boboli,
Sara Lee, Stroehmann, and Arnold bread companies.
Advertisements for the muffins place emphasis on their "nooks and crannies".
The company also produces toasting or swirl breads,
pita
Pita ( or ) or pitta (British English), is a family of yeast-leavened round flatbreads baked from wheat flour, common in the Mediterranean, Middle East, and neighboring areas. It includes the widely known version with an interior pocket, als ...
s, wraps, and bagels.
History
The company was founded by Samuel Bath Thomas (1855–1919). In 1874, he immigrated from
England to
New York City and after other menial jobs began working in a bakery.
By 1880, he had purchased his own bakery at 163
Ninth Avenue in
Manhattan,
where he featured his namesake muffins that were baked on a griddle, not an oven.
The business expanded to 337 West 20th Street (a plaque designates the building as "The Muffin House"). Thomas died in 1919, and the company, S. B. Thomas, was inherited by his daughter and nephews, and was
incorporated.
Later, it was owned by
George Weston Bakeries.
Some television commercials for the muffins have highlighted the immigrant story of Thomas, joking about how disappointed his fans in England supposedly were when he decided to take his muffins to America. (Whether the muffins were invented after Thomas had moved to the U.S. is unclear,
but the comments in the commercials are not intended to be accurate and are used for a humorous purpose.)
In 2010, the company won a
trade secret suit
when an executive uploaded the company's recipes and retired to work for
Hostess.
Annual sales in 2010 for Thomas' English Muffins was estimated to be US$500 million.
See also
*
List of brand name breads
Notes
External links
*
Bagel companies
Brand name breads
Grupo Bimbo brands
Companies established in 1880
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