Hy-Vee to close Cedar Rapids bakery, move workers to retail stores

CEDAR RAPIDS — Hy-Vee is closing its regional bakery in Cedar Rapids as part of a broader plan to return food preparation tasks to retail stores.

Company spokesperson Tina Potthoff on Friday confirmed that the grocer would be shuttering its bakery near The Eastern Iowa Airport. The site employs roughly 60 people, all of whom have been offered positions at other nearby Hy-Vee locations.

The center opened in 2023 at 655 Capital Dr. SW and provided doughnut and baked goods to stores across Eastern Iowa. After its closure in early May, Potthoff said those production operations will shift back to in-store bakeries.

“When we decided to centralize, we thought that might be a more efficient way to handle production, but what we realized is that we were losing freshness and quality once it made it to the store,” Potthoff said. “This way, instead of offering customers a doughnut that’s a day old, we can give them something freshly made.”

Potthoff estimated that the majority of workers affected by the bakery closure will be offered jobs in or around the Cedar Rapids-Iowa City corridor, although some could find work at stores farther afield if they were already traveling that distance for work.

Hy-Vee will retain the Cedar Rapids bakery building to repurpose for future use, she added, although that use has not yet been determined.

The move is part of a broader company-wide effort to return certain food preparation tasks to retail locations to improve the quality of preprepared products.

Also this week, Hy-Vee announced the impending closure of a fresh food commissary in Ankeny, Iowa, and a “Short Cuts” facility in Chariton, where fruit and other pre-cut produce were processed for regional distribution.

Both facilities opened in 2018, and they employ a combined 461 workers who have been offered jobs at other Hy-Vee locations.

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