The Mennel Milling Company
The Mennel Milling Company, headquartered in Fostoria, Ohio, has been milling wheat into flour since 1886. They are a major supplier of generic bulk and bagged flour into the bakery and mix industry. Their product will not be found in their name on store shelves, but will be found in many of the BRANDed baked products that are purchased every day from the grocery store. The Mennel Milling Company supplies flour into many of the nationally branded cake mixes, cookies, crackers, snack cakes, breadings, batters, ice cream cones, pretzels, oriental noodles, gravies and soups that one would recognize. Mennel's flour also finds its way into many mixes, doughs and bakeries that supply the baked goods of nationally branded restaurants from fast food to quick service to fine dining. The Mennel Milling Company is also a leader in specialty flours including dried and thermal processed.
History
The company was founded in 1886, as the Harter Milling Company, by a banking family, the Harters, from Mansfield, Ohio and a Hungarian flour milling family, the Browns, from Canton, Ohio. They chose to build the mill in Fostoria, because it was served by five major freight railroads and appeared to have major deposits of natural gas. An economic development package from the city provided free natural gas to the company in exchange for the power necessary to power the cities' street lights. At the time of construction, the mill, with a production capacity of 1500 barrels per day, was the largest in the nation that was not located on water. Alphonse Mennel, an Alsatian emigre, was hired as the General Superintendent of the business.
The company later changed its name to The Isaac Harter Milling Company in 1893 when the headquarters were moved from the mill location to Toledo, Ohio, in order to have better access to the Toledo Board of Trade.
Alphonse Mennel became president of the company in 1896, and on Christmas Eve 1897, the mill burned to the ground. The mill building was rebuilt and even today houses the modern milling operations.
In 1917 the company's name was changed from The Isaac Harter Milling Company to The Mennel Milling Company when the Mennel family, Alphonse and his sons Mark and Louis, purchased a controlling stake in the organization.
The mill was organized by the American Federation of Grain Millers International Union in 1933.
Lewis Mennel and Mark Mennel took over the leadership of the company from their father and ran the company until their retirement.
Donald M. Mennel, son of Louis Mennel, became president of the company in 1958, at which time he moved the company's headquarters back to Fostoria. It was during the leadership of Donald M. Mennel that the company began to focus and specialize in soft wheat milling.
During this generation the company also began to expand. In 1972 the company purchased Roanoke City Mills, in Roanoke, Virginia, from the Ring family. In 1973 The Mennel Milling Company of Michigan was formed after the purchase of the old Colby Milling site in Dowagiac.