The Beatrice Bakery has been a staple in Beatrice, NE for almost six decades. After the Lantz brothers immigrated from Germany in 1917 – with their grandmother’s fruitcake recipe in hand – they opened a bakery in St. Louis, MO to share their beloved grandmother’s fruitcake recipe.

The general demand for fruitcakes in the early 1900s outpaced what their store was capable of producing while maintaining the homemade quality. In a time when refrigerators and freezers were just becoming commonplace, the ubiquitous fruitcake’s shelf life generated a large appeal while also making it an excellent gift to mail to family for the holidays. Mailrooms filled with the timeless, round tins you’ve likely seen at your grandmother’s house, and the ever-so-classic holiday fruitcake jokes were born.

Demand raged even as the brother geared up for retirement. They began looking for a larger bakery for their treasured recipe to call home. Their hunt came to a halt in Beatrice, a small town 40 miles south of Lincoln. Grandma’s 100-plus-year-old recipe is still producing the brother’s hit fruitcake in Beatrice nearly 60 years later.

Even with the high demand, Beatrice Bakery maintains a focus on high quality and keeping to traditional methods, implementing the same philosophy and attention to detail as when they opened. Over the years, little has changed. They switched to more modern equipment to keep up with new demands, and their menu expanded adding breakfast breads, chocolate cakes, liqueur cakes, and kosher cakes.

The move to open an online business played a big hand in staying open through the pandemic of 2020. Health protocols were put in place to maintain a safe working environment. Their primary goal was to keep their employees safe through the treacherous times. Their dedicated employees were determined to keep production moving through their busiest season – mid-August into the New Year which includes the high demand of the holidays. They were able to fulfill orders as scheduled throughout the pandemic, as well as ship products on a daily basis.

For the last four and a half years, Rick Meyer has been the sitting president of Beatrice Bakery. Meyer’s biggest challenges entering the role of president pertained to brand awareness. There have been growing pains in modernizing practices that helped to push the business to continue to grow through the pandemic.

Being open for six decades is no small feat. When asked about their secret to success Meyer said, “Beatrice Bakery has no secret to success. We are dedicated and loyal to each other, our quality and the customer service we provide to our customers.” Their loyal customers, and the small hurdle of debunking a decades-old holiday joke simply with high caliber cake, have helped them remain relevant and baking. Grandma’s unchanged, heirloom recipe and their high-quality baked goods are a testament to their work ethic and consistency.