After 85 Years,
Awrey Goes Kosher
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
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FOR THE BEST IN
KNITTING & NEEDLEPOINT
Rochelle Imbe ✓s
Knit, Knit, Knit
wrey Bakeries has gone
kosher, opening the door
for new business both in-
side and outside Michi-
gan.
The company, founded in 1910
by Elizabeth and Fletcher Awrey
in Detroit, invested about
$200,000 to kasher its 260,000-
square-foot facility in Livonia in
the spring, said Awrey President
Tom Awrey.
The company has considered
going kosher for some time, but
it wasn't until it decided to vie
against Sara Lee for a lucrative
contract with Baskin-Robbins
that the process kicked into gear.
Awrey won the contract to
make chocolate-brownie crusts
for the ice cream giant's Polar
Pizzas, which have been sold in
Baskin-Robbins' 2,500 stores na-
tionwide since mid-August.
Awrey expects additional annu-
al sales of $2 million from the
product.
Last year, the company post-
ed about $52 million in sales.
But the pizza crusts resulted
in a kosher facility, and now all
Awrey products have the Ortho-
dox Union's "OU" and "D" seals.
That includes donuts and pas-
tries found in supermarkets and
Awrey products used in institu-
tions such as hospitals and
schools.
"We wanted to do this for a
very long time and we had push-
es from other people in the bak-
ery," said John Awrey, assistant
national-account manager. `This
opportunity with Baskin-Robbins
finally put us over the edge and
gave us a solid reason to do this.
I think this should give us an
edge with the Jewish communi-
ty. We weren't losing money, but
we think it'll help a lot," he said.
Awrey stands to gain a lot
from customers outside of Michi-
gan, especially because most of
its business is in big accounts.
"When we decided to go
kosher, many of our brokers, our
outside sales force on the East
Coast, said it was a good move
because there's a larger call for
kosher products," he said.
Awrey Marketing Manager
Leslie Davidson said rabbinic su-
pervision by the Union of Ortho-
dox Jewish Congregations of
America during kosherization
cost the company about $8,500.
A fee of $7,000 for supervision
and inspections will be paid an-
nually to the organization, she
said.
Most of the $200,000 it cost
Awrey to kasher its kitchen was
in lost revenues during a four-
day shutdown to clean up and
toss out old ingredients. But the
entire process took a few months,
Tom Awrey said.
Sara Lee, which is based in
Deerfield, Ill., has a kosher prod-
uct line, but not all of its five fa-
cilities have kosher certification.
Rabbi Moshe Elefant of the
Orthodox Union said the rate of
application for kosher certifica-
tion is "phenomenal."
When he joined the union
eight years ago, he said, it su-
pervised 1,700 companies. To-
day, it supervises 2,500 plants.
Rabbi Elefant attributes the
demand for kosher products to a
few factors, among them a deep-
er level of religious observance
among Jews and an increasing
health consciousness in the gen-
eral population.
❑
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Business and Professional
Institute at Oakland Commu-
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The $355 course meets from 6-
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