Dean Arnold
Betty Arnold

Dean and Betty Arnold

Placing their trust in quality ingredients – unbleached spring wheat flour, butter, honey and eggs, Betty and Dean Arnold formed Brick Oven Bakeshop in Stamford, CT in 1940 when Dean, suffering from severe allergies caused by flour, was forced to resign his position at National Biscuit Company.  With $600 in severance pay and an experimental brick oven, the Arnolds began selling fresh baked bread door-to-door from a converted garage.  Within five years Arnolds Bakers had annual sales of over $2 million and by 1970, the company exceeded nearly $40 million, which included 94 independent wholesalers and over 700 distributors.

The Arnolds were the first to test a sealed white wax wrapper to insure freshness and would later experiment with shipping frozen bread products for long distance delivery.  Eventually they would pioneer a system for franchising their products along the eastern seaboard of the United States as well as to Canada, England and Japan.

 

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