Sunbeam Bread
Franchised brand of baked goods owned by the Quality Bakers of America
title: "Sunbeam Bread" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["flowers-foods-brands", "economy-of-the-eastern-united-states", "cooperatives-in-the-united-states", "brand-name-breads", "franchises", "products-introduced-in-1942"] description: "Franchised brand of baked goods owned by the Quality Bakers of America" topic_path: "geography/united-states" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbeam_Bread" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Franchised brand of baked goods owned by the Quality Bakers of America ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox brand"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Sunbeam |
| logo | Little miss sunbeam logo.jpg |
| producttype | Baked goods |
| currentowner | Quality Bakers of America |
| country | United States |
| introduced | |
| website | |
| module | |
| module1 | |
| :: |
| name = Sunbeam | logo = Little miss sunbeam logo.jpg | producttype = Baked goods | currentowner = Quality Bakers of America | producedby = | country = United States | introduced = | discontinued = | related = | markets = | previousowners = | trademarkregistrations = | ambassadors = | tagline = | website = | module = | module1 = ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/db/SunbeamBreadOutlet.jpg" caption="Sunbeam Bread outlet in [[Houston]]."] ::
Sunbeam Bread is a franchised brand of white bread, rolls, and other baked goods owned by the Quality Bakers of America cooperative. The bread products are produced and distributed by regional bakeries.
History
Originally, Sunbeam Bread was known as Davidson’s Ideal Bread. The bread was sold by Davidson Baking Company, which was founded in 1914 by Eugene F. Davidson.
The brand was launched in 1942 and was first marketed in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
After World War II, the company joined the Quality Bakers of America (QBA) Cooperative, which marketed Sunbeam Bread and introduced Little Miss Sunbeam. Recognition of the Sunbeam brand and Little Miss Sunbeam led to the Davidson Baking Company to be often referred to as the Sunbeam Bakery.
Today, the QBA still owns the Sunbeam Bread brand, with Flowers Foods being the sixth bakery in the USA to franchise the Sunbeam brand, as well as the country's current top producer of Sunbeam bakery foods.
Little Miss Sunbeam
Sunbeam's long-time mascot is called Little Miss Sunbeam. In 1942, illustrator Ellen Barbara Segner was commissioned by the Quality Bakers of America to create a marketing symbol of a young child. Over six months she submitted hundreds of sketches before coming across the girl who would become the first Miss Sunbeam in Southern Indiana.
Licensees
- Aunt Millie’s
- Bimbo Bakeries USA
- Flowers Foods
- Lewis Bakeries
- Schmidt Baking Company
- Wolf Bakeries
References
References
- [http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Multimedia.jsp?id=m-8959 Sunbeam Truck.] ''New Georgia Encyclopedia.''
- "Davidson Baking Company (Sunbeam Bakery)". Oregon Historical Society.
- "Little Miss Sunbeam Story – Quality Bakers of America". Qba.com.
- "Stories behind Flowers Foods brands". Thomasville Times-Enterprise.
- [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=VQojAAAAIBAJ&sjid=4n8FAAAAIBAJ&pg=1105,3435234&dq=sunbeam-bread&hl=en Miss Sunbeam Nationally Famous Trademark.] ''The Modesto Bee.'' 19 April 1962.
- (2016). "Lewis Bakeries".
::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::