Companion In the Media

National distributor of breads and pastries, Companion Baking, is now providing bread at all Wally’s locations in Missouri and Illinois.

Companion founder, Josh Allen, discusses the challenges of scaling up the business, and finding the key to regaining profitability in the most unlikely of places – the trash bin.

Companion Baking, a St. Louis-based distributor of breads and pastries that services restaurants and retail chains across the Midwest in addition to running a café, has announced that it is now providing bread for all six Chicken N Pickle locations (as well as six new locations on the way in 2023).

On any normal workday at craft bread wholesaler Companion in St. Louis, if they don’t hear any bells, “that’s not a good day.” There’s an important piece of equipment affixed to a center post of this bustling bakery operation where thousands of pieces of bread dough are flowing through the production lines every day with the precision of apolished symphony orchestra.

At an intersection where improv meets architecture is a place for baking — and breaking — bread. That place is St. Louis-based Companion Baking, where the bakery is regaling consumers through the bread it produces.

Suman Shekar has a sharp eye for detail. Even while chatting at Companion’s West St. Louis Campus, part of her attention is focused on the bustling bakery visible through the cafe’s glass walls, watching for any hiccup. Her role overseeing process improvements and quality assurance combines her lifelong passion for cooking with her inclination for order and efficiency.

Slightly crisp on the outside, tender and chewy on the inside, a well-made bagel is a masterpiece of textures and flavors. Professional bakers invest a great deal of time and energy in their bagel-making processes to achieve the best-possible rings of glossy, spongy bread.