T.J. Cinnamon Owner Rolls Out Wholesale Bakery in Santa Ana

In a deal that could create as many as 80 new jobs, the New Jersey baking company that operated the T.J. Cinnamon retail sweet roll chain has leased a 22,000-square-foot facility in Santa Ana for its first company-owned wholesale bakery.

Paramark Enterprises Inc. plans to start production in November and is hiring about 20 experienced bakery workers, said Alan Gottlich, chief financial officer. If sales and expansion plans go as expected, he said, the bakery could have 80 employees by the end of 1997.

Paramark sold its chain of retail bakery stores to a Florida restaurant company earlier this year and is concentrating on production of three cinnamon roll products for sale in supermarkets under the T.J. Cinnamon name. The Santa Ana bakery will produce baked goods for several Southland supermarket chains, including the approximately 250 Ralphs stores in Southern California.

The bakery company plans an immediate investment of about $150,000 for new equipment for the building, which had been used as a bakery by a previous tenant, and could spend an additional $250,000 on expansion next year, Gottlich said.