PETALUMA — At worker-owned Alvarado Street Bakery, even production worker cooperative members who plop bagel dough onto baking sheets own a piece of the business. Nearly every one of the 120 members owns a share. The co-op structure yields high motivation, extremely low injury rates and shared profits that in a typical year reach an estimated $15,000 per worker on top of regular hourly pay.
Alvarado, guided for decades by co-founder Joseph Tuck until his retirement near the end of 2014, in October brought food industry veteran Kevin Haslebacher to steer the co-op to a new trajectory of growth. Later this year, likely in August, Alvarado hopes to launch new partnerships with other local food companies that could propel fresh growth for the company beyond its current revenues of about $32 million.
As general coordinator and CEO, Haslebacher functions more like coach than boss. Alvarado is the largest worker cooperative in the North Bay. He worked more than two years as executive vice president of manufacturing operations at Amy’s Kitchen, also based in Petaluma, and previously for Ralcorp Frozen Bakery Products, acquired in 2013 by ConAgra Foods, which had 2014 revenue of about $18 billion. From 1986 to 1995, Haslebacher worked for Nabisco Biscuit Co. as plant facilitator. He has been inside hundreds of food plants.
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