Sun Flour Baking Company, the Sacramento bakery that has produced animal-free cookies since 1997, is retiring its trade name and moving its products under a new consumer brand, Hooray! Cookies, citing repeated confusion with other US businesses operating under the same or similar names.
Founder Rey Ortega said the company was first to use the Sun Flour name in 1997, but that close to 10 other US businesses now trade under identical or near-identical names, several of which are not plant-based. According to the company, shoppers, distributors and online buyers have mixed up the businesses, putting orders and the bakery’s plant-based identity at risk.
“We do not want to be mistaken for companies that bake with dairy or eggs”
“Sun Flour sounded right for the natural-foods era, but it no longer tells people who we are. We were first with the name, and we are still a strictly plant-based, NSF- and organic-certified bakery. We do not want to be mistaken for companies that bake with dairy or eggs,” Ortega said.
Repositioning for the mainstream cookie set
The rename also changes where the company wants its products stocked. Sun Flour grew its business in natural-foods retail, while Hooray! Cookies is positioned for grocery, club, e-commerce and international channels, competing directly against conventional cookie brands rather than sitting in a specialty set.
Production remains in Sacramento, and existing wholesale customers and private-label programs are being transitioned to the new brand. The current range includes chocolate chip, double chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, s’mores, lemon, mint chip, oatmeal raisin and birthday cake, sold in 1oz and 3oz formats through the company’s own store and via Walmart’s marketplace and wholesale platform Faire.
Three decades in vegan baking
Ortega founded The Alternative Baking Company in 1994, one of the first dedicated vegan cookie brands in the United States, and launched Sun Flour Baking Company three years later to develop new recipes with longer shelf life at a dedicated plant-based facility. The bakery has since supplied retail, foodservice and private-label customers, including airline and contract catering accounts.
“Hooray! Cookies is simple, fun, and impossible to confuse with a granola brand or someone else’s bakery,” Ortega said.
