LaBree's Bakery Revenue and Competitors

And he sold it to LaBree's, and they started down the cellar over there, and it kept getting bigger and bigger, and then they moved into a building there at 69 Bodwell Street on French Island. At this time, Almond and Pat LaBree made adjustments to the recipe, which is the same recipe used today. Clement LaBree, Pat and Almond's brother, joined his brothers and his parents in the bakery's operation. Eva Collins was one of the early employees at LaBree's and recalls, "Yes, when I went to work there at LaBree's, we were making probably 6-12 dozen donuts. They were made in the cellar of the LaBree home. The business continued to grow and within five years it was necessary to build a two-story building in the same location. Continuing success required another two-story building be added in 1958. By this time there were 12-15 employees hand cutting 1,800 dozen doughnuts and baking 400-500 loaves of bread daily. The Bodwell Street area was a flurry of traffic, with LaBree delivery trucks going out on their rounds and supplier's trucks bringing the staples of baking. Not to be overlooked, there was also the "Sunday after mass traffic" of vehicles and pedestrians on their way to purchase fresh donuts. There was no greater treat for a youngster of French Island than to run to the bakery after church to savor the delicious taste of a hot chocolate-sugared doughnut. Bert Morin, whose home on Bosworth Street was on the bakery trail, witnessed the weekly parade, "Well, I can tell you sitting here Sunday morning I'd sit on the porch here and see hundreds of cars go by there after church to go pick up their chocolate doughnuts." LaBree's Bakery continued to expand, with more building additions in 1960 and 1970. During this time automated machinery was introduced: a doughnut cutter and a wrapping machine. They were also expanding their area of sales throughout the Greater Bangor area, Millinocket area and Eastern Maine. The 1960's also brought the next generation into the management of the bakery. Clement's sons, Dan and Jim, became involved with LaBree's full-time in 1963. Almond's son, Bernie, joined them in 1965. In 1978, Dan, Jim, and Bernie purchased the business from Pat and Almond. Jim recalls this new venture for the young LaBree men, "When we took over the company in 1978, the three of us sat down to discuss what we wanted to set for goals (and realized) we had to make a decision to buy more property to expand at the existing site or buy a piece of land somewhere else and build a new building. The city didn't really want us to add on anymore, so we decided to buy this land (at Gilman Falls Ave.) and build this building. We were young, we were aggressive, and we set our goals very high. That what keeps us going and keeps us growing." The decision had been made, LaBree's Bakery would relocate in Old Town's Industrial Park on Gilman Falls Ave. Groundbreaking for the new building was held in June of 1979. The plant would have over 22,000 square feet of floor space and added new equipment. The new facility would also have a coffee shop, cake department and thrift shop. Construction was completed in January of 1980 and after 32 years on French Island, LaBree's moved its operation. LaBree's continued to increase its wholesale distribution into other areas (New England). The new managers also began to introduce new product lines. Bernie explained their thinking about new offerings, "We were fooling around with frozen items. We had it in the back of our minds that we were going to go more into frozen food items, because we had better control of the product and there were no returns. So we started to move in that direction when we built this plant. The triumph and excitement with the new and modern facility would be short-lived. It was replaced by the crushing agony of seeing their new building ravaged by a fire in January of 1982 that destroyed 75 percent of the plant. The bakery had 83 employees at the time of the fire and LaBree's were grateful that the fire had claimed no injuries. The majority of equipment was spared by the blaze and the decision was made to immediately rebuild. In April 1982, LaBree's Bakery resumed production with all of our customers back on board! At that time, the facility was approximately 75,000 square feet. Since 1978, LaBree's has added on to the facility 6 times. The goal to sell our product in every state in the Continental United States and Canada was met by the year 1999. A new freezer was finished in the fall of 1999 that holds approximately 125 tractor-trailer loads of product, expanding to our present facility size of 84,000 square feet. LaBree's Bakery is constantly developing new recipies and products as well as modernizing the plant. Our product line now includes doughnuts, decorated & un-iced cakes, bundt & angel food cakes, iced & un-iced cupcakes, muffins, brownies, whoopie pies, jelly rolls, holiday items and other pastries.