Le Boulanger Sunnyvale site is bought amid sale of business that will preserve its brand

SUNNYVALE — In a whirlwind of transactions, the Le Boulanger headquarters property has been purchased, the business and brand have been bought, the employees are being transitioned to new jobs amid layoffs, and the main offices are shifting to Fresno.

Athens Baking Co., based in Fresno, has bought the Le Boulanger business and brand, Dan Brunello, chief executive officer of Le Boulanger, told this news organization Tuesday in an interview.

“It’s an exciting time,” Brunello said. “We are excited to be handing off the business to a company that will preserve its legacy and expand the business.”

Separately, Irvine Co., a big developer, has bought the Le Boulanger property, located at 305 N. Mathilda Ave., according to Santa Clara County property records filed on Jan. 13.

Acting through an affiliate, Irvine Co. paid $19.5 million for the Sunnyvale site, located near the corner of Mathilda Avenue and Central Expressway.

The Le Boulanger baking operations in Sunnyvale are being shifted to an existing manufacturing site in Richmond. Distribution activities that were in Sunnyvale are relocating to San Leandro.

However, the wide-ranging changes and transactions involving the bakery company have resulted in job cuts for Le Boulanger employees, according to an official filing with the state’s Employment Development Department.

“Le Boulanger Inc. will be closing its entire facility at 305 N. Mathilda Ave. in Sunnyvale,” the company stated in the EDD filing.

Up to 143 employees could lose their jobs, Le Boulanger disclosed in a letter to the EDD.

The first of the job cuts will begin around March 3 and will continue in phases until the staff reductions are completed around March 31, the EDD filing shows.

“We are working hard to transition everyone to new jobs,” Brunello said.

Bakers, route drivers, retail cafe workers, laborers and office workers are among the types of jobs that are being eliminated by the plant shutdown.

“A good portion of the staff have been offered new opportunities in Richmond and San Leandro, and we are also getting inquiries from other employers in our industry about hiring some of our people,” Brunello said.

Le Boulanger also is working with the Nova Job Center in Sunnyvale to obtain new employment for the displaced workers.

The sale of the business to Athens Baking closes a major chapter in California’s retailing and baking industries.

“Baking has been a Brunello family tradition for nearly a century,” according to the Le Boulanger website. “Paul Brunello, father of Roger and Dan, immigrated to America from Venice, Italy and began the Brunello tradition of true bread baking.”

The family’s first bakery opened in 1922 in the Siskiyou County town of Weed. In 1956, the Brunello family moved to the Bay Area and opened a bakery in Palo Alto. Over the decades, the elder Brunello brought his sons Dan and Roger into the family business.

After the Brunello family bakery merged with Stemple’s Bakery in 1971, the family business extended from Santa Clara County up the Peninsula and into San Francisco.

Eventually, in 1981, Dan and Roger launched Le Boulanger as a tiny 14-seat cafe in downtown Los Altos.

“They offered delicious sourdough and specialty breads that were unprecedented in the area, setting the stage for Le Boulanger to become the Bay Area’s premier bread bakery,” the company’s website states.

This time around, it appears Dan Brunello intends to exit a business that’s nearly four decades old.

“Athens Baking has the bandwidth to really expand the business,” Brunello said. “I’m going to work with Athens for a little while to make sure the transition goes well. After that, I think I’m going to step back and maybe retire. Under the new owner, Le Boulanger will flourish, it will grow, it’s going to remain great.”

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