Love’s Bakery is sadly closing down operations at the end of March due to losses caused by the Covid pandemic. Love’s supplies grocery stores, schools, hotels, and restaurants with breads and baked goods. The company will close its Kalihi plant and its retail outlets in Kaneohe, Hilo, Kahului, Lihue and Kailua- Kona. they have stated that they are seriously delinquent in rent and were unable to qualify for the 2nd round of PPP funding. “It’s the trickle down effect,” Hawaii Restaurant Association Executive Director Sheryl Matsuoka said of Love’s closing. "Since the hotels and restaurants are not open they are not ordering from Love’s and now this is one of the casualties of this pandemic.”
Love’s History and How It All Started...
On June 19, 1851, a baker from Scotland named Robert Love arrived in Honolulu, HI with his wife, Margaret, and three sons, Robert Jr., 15; James, 10; and William, 8 from Sydney, Australia. The 80-day voyage on an American ship named “Adirondack” was grueling, but Robert immediately began to work on a dream. By July 12, 1851, he had obtained a retail store license that permitted him to operate a bakery and sell its products. In less than 2 years, he opened the first Love’s Biscuit & Bread Co. on Nu‘uanu Street in 1853.
The Love’s Biscuit & Bread Co. specialized in “re-baking” bread from sailing ships that had become inedible, as well as selling hard biscuits, called hardtack. The business was expanded in 1924 when Love’s opened a second location in Iwilei that produced bread and rolls.
Several years later, the decision was made to concentrate the company’s entire efforts on wholesale business. Operations were consolidated at the Iwilei plant in 1932. By July 1943, with the demand for bread and crackers increasing due to the demands of both the armed forces and civilians, a new plant was opened on Kapahulu Avenue. Over the years, it was completely modernized and mechanized, as progressive as any bakery in the world. The transport of bread and crackers to the neighbor islands, once shipped by barge, began to be flown in the “flying bakery truck” as early as 1945.
- - - - -
For more information about local happenings on Kauai, or to inquire specifically about Kauai real estate, you can reach us at:
Sean Ahearn & Jim Karlovsky