THE NAME GONNELLA, for Chicago food connoisseurs, conjures up visions of freshly baked, aromatic, crisp-crusted bread. A true hearth-baked product baked fresh every day of the year.

THE GONNELLA BAKING COMPANY now produces over three million pounds of product weekly, in six facilities. The current production capabilities are far more sophisticated and extensive than the original operation, which processed a few hundred loaves weekly in a basement shop on Chicago's De Koven Street. The bread that comes out of the ovens today is the same top quality product that Alessandro Gonnella produced in his small, wood burning oven when he founded the company over a century ago.

Our President, Nick Marcucci, sums up the company philosophy this way...

THE YEAR WAS 1886 and Alessandro had purchased a small storefront bakery on Chicago's De Koven Street where he had learned his trade. Since he was the operation's sole employee he mixed the doughs, baked the bread, delivered the products and even kept the books for his fledgling neighborhood enterprise. Alessandro's little business thrived.

IN 1896, he moved his Gonnella Bakery to a larger building on Sangamon Street near Ohio Street. By then he had brought his wife, Marianna Marcucci, over from his northern Italian village of Barga. In the early 1900's his teen-aged brothers-in-law, Lawrence, Nicholas and Luigi Marcucci joined him in the United States to assist Alessandro in his growing business.

IN 1915, the Erie Street plant was built. By then the horse drawn delivery wagons were making over 200 stops per day. Other plants were purchased, and by the end of World War II, the higher volume sale to grocery stores and restaurants had supplanted home deliveries.

AND THE BUSINESS STILL CONTINUES TO GROW. In the mid-1970's Gonnella entered the frozen dough category, establishing a strong presence as a supplier of the highest quality doughs for the in-store bakery industry. This effort was very successful. In 1980, a plant was purchased in Schaumburg, Illinois and dedicated exclusively to this purpose. Frozen dough products are now distributed nationwide.

The GONNELLA-MARCUCCI FAMILIES are still operating the bakeries much as their grandfather and great-grandfather did so many years ago. A total of 33 family members work for the company today.