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CentralightSpring14b

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28 centralight spring '14 28 centralight spring '14 At 4:51 p.m. Feb. 19, 2013, Awrey Bakeries, a 104-year-old Michigan company known for its coff ee cakes, cookies and other baked goods, was nine minutes away from closing its doors for good. But two CMU graduates, with banking assistance from a third, gave the story a sweet ending. James McColgan, '76, and Ron Beebe, '71, closed the deal on acquiring Awrey just before the company was to be shuttered and its assets auctioned. "Ron Beebe and I did not want to see another Michigan company falter and another 100 employees lose their jobs," says McColgan, who had more than 25 years baking experience with a variety of other companies. Today the Livonia bakery is again producing cakes, cookies and other treats as a unit of Beebe and McColgan's Minnie Marie Bakers Inc. in Midland. "We started at zero business and now we are doing phenomenal," McColgan says. Beebe, a serial entrepreneur who has owned more than 130 companies, says McColgan approached him about acquiring Awrey as the well- known company was skidding toward insolvency. Both men say they were longtime fans of Awrey's products. It turned out that Beebe's corporate banker at PNC Bank, Fred Mitchell, '77, was McColgan's roommate at CMU and the three men were able to structure fi nancing that allowed Beebe and McColgan to acquire Awrey. The Awrey family founded the iconic company in Detroit in 1910. It grew to produce baked goods for a variety of customers, ranging from grocery stores to the United States military. It currently operates from a 218,000-square-foot plant in Livonia. Awrey had struggled fi nancially in recent years. The company fi led for bankruptcy in 2005 and was sold that year to a newly formed company backed by investment banking fi rms in New York and Chicago. Beebe says he thinks absentee ownership played a role in Awrey's near demise. He and McColgan have taken a hands-on approach in revitalizing the company. The new owners have cut operational costs, restored relationships with customers and vendors, and expanded Awrey's off erings, including a gluten-free line of baked goods. Awrey also is in the process of getting government approvals to produce a line of ready-to-eat foods. "We're looking at our operation as a broader food manufacturing operation, not necessarily just a bakery," Beebe says. Awrey had about 130 unionized employees when the company's previous owners ceased operations. Those employees had agreed to wage cuts of $1.85 an hour in a failed eff ort to keep the bakery lines going. The company now has 80 nonunion employees, most of whom worked for the company under its previous ownership. McColgan says he hopes to hire additional workers in coming months. "This had nothing to do with the union being bad," he says. "It was very good. It's just that we do not operate union companies." With tighter fi nancial controls and quality products, Awrey is poised to prosper for years to come, McColgan says. "It has been a very exciting challenge," he says. "We've fi nally convinced customers and vendors that we are here to stay." > Rescuers the PHOTOS BY MELANIE MAXWELL "We did not want to see another Michigan company falter and another 100 employees lose their jobs." – James McColgan, '76 28 centralight spring '14

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