Detroit’s Metropolitan Baking Company Completes Major Expansion of its Hamtramck Facility

Hamtramck, MI. – Metropolitan Baking Company, one of Hamtramck’s oldest and most successful businesses, has completed a major expansion of its bakery, adding 37,000 square feet on its 20-acre property.

The expansion features a conveyorized high-speed bun and roll line with state-of-the-art proof box, oven and baking equipment, boosting the bakery’s capacity by nearly 40 percent. It also includes new shipping docks, storage space and an expanded break room for employees. The company has recently hired 25 new team members.

“Metropolitan Baking Company is an 80-year-old family-run business that started operations in 1945 in two Hamtramck homes,” said George Kordas, company president and grandson of the founder. “We are a debt free company with a conservative attitude so we tend to be very methodical when reinvesting in our facility. We believe that since we’re baking some of the most consistent and highest quality bread, bun and roll products in the country, word will continue to spread that partnering with us is a great idea. In this case, our largest investment to date, we wanted to be certain that demand was driving the business, and just a few months in, the new line is already operating near capacity.

“We also wanted to support our employees and community. We accomplished that by adding new jobs—the vast majority of our workforce lives within five miles of the bakery—and by creating a new break room with improved kitchen facilities, locker-rooms, televisions and furniture. We have an incredible, dedicated team, which is why we were confident in this latest expansion.” 

Kordas said that new shipping docks enable Metropolitan to reroute the majority of truck traffic, so that trucks stay on commercial roads lessening the impact on neighborhood streets.

Metropolitan has experienced what Kordas calls “fantastic” growth in recent years, adding well known brands, restaurants and food chains to its national customer base. The bakery now delivers its Michigan-made products to customers across the country. Spring and summer demand is especially high for buns and rolls, while restaurants, schools and universities are primary customers in the fall and winter.
Once best known for its Coney Island steamer hot dog buns and Pullman breads, Metropolitan now produces a wide variety of items including brioche buns, slider buns, dinner, sub, Kaiser and onion rolls. Its products are sold under several brand names, primarily ‘Kordas’.”

Kordas said that Metropolitan now begins “first dough” production at 1:00 a.m. with final packaging happening around midnight six days a week. In full operation, the bakery produces 240 dozen buns per minute on their bun/roll line and roughly 140 loaves of bread per minute on the bread line. The bakery uses roughly 800,000 lbs of flour on a weekly basis. 

In its expansion project, Metropolitan declined a potential grant incentive from the Michigan Agriculture Commission and did not pursue other grant opportunities. “Our view is that a financially stable city can do more for its people and infrastructure, better schools and improved public safety,” Kordas said. “Hamtramck has been good to us—it’s a wonderful community—and the last thing we want to do is slow down progress. Instead, we want to grow opportunities and take our Detroit pride to customers across the country.”

“My father, Jim, had the vision to more fully automate the plant and is now beaming with pride,” Kordas said. “I wish my grandfather could see this moment – the shiny new state of the art facilities and our reach across the country would certainly impress him, but what would matter most is knowing that Metropolitan still carries forward his passion for quality baking and his respect for the people who make it possible – our employees and our loyal customers.”

General contractor on the expansion project was Roncelli Inc. of Sterling Heights.