Control of the Famous Amos Cookie Chain Is Sold to Baers

In 1985, an investment group that included former Sen. John V. Tunney (D-Calif.) and New York garment industry executive Sidney Kimmel bought control of Famous Amos Chocolate Chip Cookie Corp. hoping to make some dough.

It didn’t. Sales of the Van Nuys company’s upscale cookies remained flat at about $10 million a year. Instead of expanding the number of Famous Amos stores from 70 to 100 as was predicted then, the number was slashed to about 50.

On Friday, the group announced that it had cashed in its chips two months ago by selling control of Famous Amos for an undisclosed amount to members of the Baer family of Denver. Two weeks ago, the Baers moved the Famous Amos headquarters to Torrance.

Few details were disclosed about the sale. But Kimmel and Tunney, who bought control of the private company from the wealthy Bass family of Texas, confirmed that they failed to make a profit.

“I had a lot of delicious cookies. I did not make any money on it,” said Kimmel, who, in addition to working in the garment business, financed such films as “9 1/2 Weeks” and “Blame It on Rio.”

Tunney said that shortly after the group bought control a decision was made to emphasize sales to supermarkets rather than opening franchise stores. In hindsight, he said, it was a mistake because the company lost substantial ground to giant Mrs. Fields Cookies of Park City, Utah, which had annual sales of $117 million in 1987 and more than 700 stores.