Trina Bediako is the CEO and second-generation head of New Horizons Baking Co, a family-owned business since 1995. She has been working in the industry for 23 years and is now spearheading her company on an accelerated growth path, with a new bakery built this year.
The moment you hear Trina Bediako speak, you feel compelled to meet her and learn about her experiences, the people she leads at New Horizons Baking Co, and her perspective on the baking business. She graciously granted BBI an interview moments after I first heard her speak, at Dawn Foods’ women’s networking event, organized at IBIE.
“We are all in the people business,” she told the audience at the panel. “The president of my company and I have a joke that says, we wish we could just make buns and muffins, right? It would be so much easier. But we need people to do that, and we’ve got to take care of them. And as leaders, I’ve learned that who we are is how we lead, and the importance of being self-aware.”
“Define and know your purpose. Why in the world are you doing this every day? If you’re here each and every day, you need to be clear about why you’re here and know your worth, know your true value, because if you do not, no one else will. And be bold enough to express it and understand that everybody may not like it all the time, but it’s important that you live it, exemplify it, and keep your head up about it.”
Trina Bediako, CEO, New Horizons Baking Co
Always New Horizons: “Our biggest growth has occurred under my leadership”
Catalina Mihu: Thank you for joining an impromptu conversation! After hearing your presentation, I would love to learn more about your journey in bakery.
Trina Bediako: New Horizons Baking Co produces hamburger buns and English muffins. That’s our primary focus. We have customers such as McDonald’s and Starbucks and Dunkin’. My father, Tim Brown, has 60 years in the industry. He started out with a company called Continental Bread, which produced the Wonder Bread brand in Buffalo, New York. He was a route salesman and a hard worker. Along the way, people supported his growth, so he got promoted often, which meant that I lived in a different state every major grade because he kept accepting new and bigger positions. He was a supervisor, sales manager, general manager, regional sales manager, regional vice president, corporate vice president, and director of sales at Continental Baking Company. That was my first ‘footprint’, watching him work hard, not denying an opportunity, putting God first and always taking care of the family, while pushing forward.
My father worked for Continental Baking for 30 years; when he took an early retirement in ’95, he purchased two McDonald’s bakeries, one in Indiana and one in Ohio, with two partners. He had the least equity, but he ran the business. And McDonald’s wanted more minority suppliers. The plan was always for our family to buy out the other partners, which we did.
I’ve spent the first 16 years learning the business, working with him, and learning all the departments, since my background was in telecommunications. I didn’t know anything about bakery. In 2002, when I started at New Horizons, there were two bakeries, 185 employees, and three production lines. And 95% of our business was McDonald’s. Today, 23 years later, there are five facilities, over 750 people working here, and about 16 different production lines. In the past seven years, I’ve been in the most senior positions, president , COO and now CEO. Today, we have four vertical business units: we have bakeries that produce just for McDonald’s and bakeries that produce for other customers, like Starbucks and Dunkin’, Great Value, Walmart and Pepperidge Farm. We also have a transportation company that delivers a portion of our business. And we have two acquisitions – two ingredient companies that specialize in dry ingredients and liquid ingredients. The acquisitions were made under my leadership. And our biggest growth has occurred under my leadership.
“As leaders, I’ve learned that who we are is how we lead, and the importance of being self-aware.”
Trina Bediako, CEO, New Horizons Baking Co
My father took a step back from the business in 2014, when my mother passed. He hired someone else to run the business: a man that we knew, a smart businessman, but he was not a baker. He was a banker. In 2017, my father gave me an opportunity to step up. At that time, we had some financial challenges, and I had to build a team. At one point within my first year, three of my executives left.
At IBIE, Trina Bediako joined a panel discussion led by Dawn Foods’ CEO, Carrie Jones-Barber, on growth, professional development, and the importance of mutual support
Mihu: What was your position in the company at that time?
Bediako: I was president, navigating a tough time. I became the COO also because the COO left. And they each left for different reasons, but it’s hard not to look at yourself and consider why the people around you choose to leave. Since then, two of them have come back to the company, and the third wanted to, but we didn’t have a position available. Over the last five years, we’ve grown exponentially.
And we’re not stopping: in the last 18 months, we’ve added two facilities to our business. One joined through the acquisition of the dry and liquid ingredient companies – Coalescence NHB and Graffiti Foods, which we put under one roof, and rebranded. Instead of two separate companies, they are now New Horizons Food Solutions, with customers such as McCormick and Kellogg’s, for dry products like pepper and sugar packets, energy drinks and vitamixes. It makes liquid ingredients such as liquid soups, sauces and dips, and ingredients used in bakeries, from mixes to seasonings and inclusions. It’s running well!
We also added a new bakery – a 155,000 square feet facility with a high-speed hamburger bun line that produces 8,000 dozen buns an hour. By comparison, it is a couple thousand dozen per hour bigger than many of our bakery counterparts. This big line started producing products in March of this year. In that same building, we have a frozen pancake line for Jimmy Dean breakfast pancake sandwiches. We make blueberry and maple bits pancakes that are made into breakfast sandwiches. It has an inline freezer, the coolest equipment! It’s exciting. Both new businesses are in Columbus, Ohio.
Mihu: How do the family values drive this growth?
Bediako: My father, who is now 80 years old and lives here, in Las Vegas, is still on board as an advisor and can see how we continue his legacy into the second generation and beyond. We run the company in a way that allows him to enjoy his retirement comfortably, but he stays connected to the company and is active in the strategy planning. He visits each facility annually. Two of my three adult children also work for the business. As a family, we are always looking at what’s the next step for us.
I am grateful to be in this role, and I’m grateful to have organizations and support from the industry – and from people like you. It means a lot for me to be in this role, which allows me to make a difference in places that may not have received proper attention, and I take my responsibility seriously.
New Horizons Baking Co was recognized in the 2025 IBIE BEST in Baking Program for innovation and workforce development
Mihu: Having started from a point where the company was struggling, what was the first thing that you did to start turning things around? What did your initial plan look like?
Bediako: The first thing I did was get a good team, because the truth is that no leader does it alone! I picked people who were diverse in skill set, experience, gender and age, because people bring their experiences to the table. I needed a strong team because I’m not the finance person, for instance; so I needed a CFO I could entrust with the role.
As a leader, you’ve got to have great people around you, but you need to understand what they’re each doing; because if you don’t understand that, you can be easily led astray and have your business suffer for it. Spending time with people who understand the things that aren’t in your field of specialty helps. And asking questions helps – you can’t be afraid to ask questions, even if people don’t always like that. If they get uncomfortable, I explain to them that my questions are not because I don’t trust them, but because I want to understand what happens in my business. I don’t have to know it all, but I have to have a good sense of it.
And I’m grateful that I have a good awareness of it. The company has been growing fast, and we have multiple locations, so I don’t see everybody who gets hired; but, when I know someone has recently joined, I want to know who they are, I want to know who is running my business. I will set up a one-on-one so I can just say hello, talk with them and get a feel for their personality and intent, see their face, and make a first impression.
So, setting up the team was the most important thing. Getting to know our stakeholders was very important, too. When I first became President of the company, I heard things like: ‘she’s green’, ‘she doesn’t really know what she is doing’, or ‘she’s just Tim’s daughter’ – not ‘Trina, the leader of the company’.
Mihu: And what does your role feel like now?
Bediako: At the end of the day, my dad can relax in Vegas because he looks at the numbers every month and there’s money in the bank, and there’s financial growth, and there’s a panel or two, or an article that says you’re doing well. When he comes to a convention like this, and someone says, ‘I saw your daughter’, he can feel there’s a growing and well-maintained legacy. I’m the oldest of three children. Both of my siblings have worked for the company at different times. If I do well, if we do well, this could go on for as long as we choose.
“In 2002, when I started at New Horizons, there were two bakeries, 185 employees, and three production lines. And 95% of our business was McDonald’s. Today, 23 years later, there are five facilities, over 750 people working here, and about 16 different production lines.”
Trina Bediako, CEO, New Horizons Baking Co
Have you heard the phrase old money and new money? We don’t come from a wealthy family. We’re just honest, hardworking people who have been blessed and were fortunate to make a bit of a mark. And we’ll continue to do that. I want that to be available for my children, my nieces and nephews , my grandchildren and the family generations I will never know.
Equally important, whenever I leave the company, I want my employees to be better off than when I came. And when they retire, I want them to have 401k and money in the bank. I don’t want them to have to get a second job after retirement because they didn’t manage. To support them, we teach them about managing their finances. We try to bring a lot to the table so that people can live balanced lives. It’s all about the people being responsible for the task they are entrusted with.
This applies to everyone, including the people hired now, in leadership roles. Yes, I need you to be strong in operations, and you must know how to lead, but you’ve got to be able to listen to people, direct them and teach them. Everything has grown much more complex over the years, because the industry has changed, the workforce is different, so we also have to look at it through a different lens.
Mihu: You don’t want to be perceived as just your father’s daughter. How do you want to be seen?
Bediako: I say that carefully. I don’t want that to be the title before my name. I love my father and I wouldn’t be here without him giving me an opportunity, but I want to be recognized for what I bring to the table and I believe that, today, I am. But, part of that had to come with me acknowledging something: here is what I accomplished, and here is proof. And then keep pushing.
Mihu: You mentioned that finance wasn’t your strong suit when you joined. What skill set do you think helped you to get to where you are now?
Bediako: I am flexible; I can deal with change, and I care about people. The business is important to me. I am a bit of an overachiever, so I work hard. I’m committed. And when I came to the business, 23 years ago, I was a young mother with three children, married. I didn’t know anything about baking. But I always try to give my best to anything that’s in front of me. And over the years, the industry has become mine. I’m a leader, an organizer and a planner. Sometimes, I overextend all these things. But my dad gave me an opportunity. This is my family business. I have to represent it well.
Mihu: It only starts to be a family business when the second generation joins in, right?
Bediako: It starts building with the second, and it gets really complicated with the third and fourth, I think. I have two siblings I love, but we all have different feelings about the business, and we have different roles and different levels of commitment, and that’s okay. I tell this to my family members all the time. You don’t have to be in the family business. If you don’t want to, if it’s not your thing, that’s okay. I have three children. Two of them work for the company. The third, my daughter, lives in California, and she’s married and happy where she is. She doesn’t want to be a part of the business and that’s fine. But if you do work for the company, you’ve got to bring it. You’ve got to be in 100%. And that’s where it feels complicated right now, when family members might want to come in because they think it’s something that they are entitled to and not necessarily earned. They must earn it. My dad made me work for 16 years before we’d even talk about me being president. And the truth was, I wasn’t ready before that. But I wanted that role and I made certain he knew it!
Mihu: Did you feel you weren’t ready?
Bediako: By the time I got to the 16th year, I was ready. But leading up to it, I thought I could do this because I wanted to do this. Well, no, there’s so much to learn before you can actually lead the business. So in our family, we talk about it, to understand everyone’s expectations. And then, your work proves who you are. You don’t have to walk around and say you’re the owner. You don’t have to act like you’re better than everyone. Do the work, and no one can deny your worth.
‘The baker’s baker’
Trina Bediako, New Horizons Baking Co
Trina Bediako is the CEO of NHB Holdings LLC and its subsidiaries. She is the second-generation owner of the company. Her father, Tim Brown, serves as the Chairman. The Brown family has owned the business for 30 years and Trina Bediako is committed to its success and legacy. During her 23 years as an NHB employee, she has served in several corporate positions, including Director of Human Resources, Vice President of Sales, President, and now CEO. In her current position, Bediako manages all the initiatives and programs related to Sales, Quality and Operations. She has led the management team through record-breaking growth and earnings.
Bediako completed undergraduate studies at the University of Connecticut with a major in Marketing and a minor in Spanish. She has received manufacturing and business training at the American Institute of Baking (AIB), Kellogg School of Management, and Wharton School of Business. She currently serves on the following boards: Ronald McDonald House Charities, American Bakers Association, McDonald’s U.S. Supplier Advisory Council, McDonald’s Bakery Council, the McDonald’s Supplier Network, and the Huntington Bank Cleveland Advisory Board.
Accolades – In 2021, Trina Bediako received the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Regional Award for Michigan and Northwest Ohio; Women Presidents Organizations’ 50 Fastest Women Led Businesses Award in 2024; and in 2025, the YWCA Women of Achievement Award, and the Huntington Bank Smart Woman Award.
The New Horizons Baking Family
New Horizons is a female-led, minority-owned company with a diverse workforce, family-owned since 1995. The strong relationships this team has fostered have solidified our reputation as a highly ethical company that adds value with customers, suppliers, industry associations, and other bakers.
Part of the NHB family of companies, New Horizons Baking Co produces soft sandwich buns and English Muffins for the world’s most recognizable quick service restaurants. New Horizons serves an expanding market of over 2,000 restaurants across Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, and western Pennsylvania, US. Genesis Baking Company, also part of the NHB Family of Brands, produces custom English muffins and soft rolls.
The NHB provides baked goods, foods, blends, mixes, and formulations – all backed by a team of experts and food scientists and industry innovators.
Mihu: But all the hard work can often still go unrecognized. Especially so for women.
Bediako: There are all sorts of levels of recognition, but it starts with you. Did I do a good job? Did I do my best? Does it make a difference? And is there proof? How do I know these answers? The company’s grown. There’s more money in the bank. My employees are satisfied. The customers are happy. I did a good job. As for general recognition, it would be nice if it was given more freely, but guess what? I did a good job, regardless. All you can do is keep going. The more we want from others, the more disappointed we may be.
Mihu: What was your first role when you joined, and what was the moment when you realized you loved the industry and you wanted to grow in it?
Bediako: I started in human resources. And for me, that was good because I got to learn about each facility and I got to meet the people right away. When did the needle turn? When I became president and started to have a seat at the table, to make decisions and then see those decisions bring positive results. That’s when it started to ‘click’. Now, I just can’t imagine it not being a part of my life. There must be a balance, though. My husband works for the company, two of my children work for the company, my brother, and a sister-in-law; we have to remember to have a relationship balance. When I come home from work, we don’t talk about the business at dinner. My husband and I don’t even ride to work together so that we can give each other brain space. It’s the same with my children; I can’t be everywhere all the time, but I have faith, I have a good sense of what’s going and where.
When I don’t understand something, that’s when I start asking my questions. Because I’m a leader and I call myself an active CEO. I am not just a pretty face. I’m not just Tim’s daughter. I’m not just going to sit around and show up for interviews. I’m making a change. I’m making decisions. I provide the vision and I provide all I can to my team to execute. I’m not confused. On occasion, I’ll poke into a department when I think something’s not right and get involved to help find a solution (and not to point any fingers). If you don’t want me poking around your department, then you need to manage it a little better (she smiles).
Mihu: What does it take for you to start to look into more details around different departments?
Bediako: I have strong department heads and leaders and I let them lead. I make my vision clear and allow them to lead. So, it’s not about micromanaging. In my role, I have to be able to see that things are moving as they should. Women, we have rights! You have the right to speak up if you want to express your opinion; you have the right to disagree, and manage with logic, not emotions.
Mihu: What would you consider your hardest professional ‘battle’, as a woman?
Bediako: I try not to focus too much on the stereotypes we could get caught up in. I am a black woman, yes. It’s what I’ve always been. I work hard and I’m a businesswoman. That’s worth remembering more. The industry is male-dominated; it’s white male-dominated. I respect that, but it doesn’t deter or intimidate me.
From my perspective, it’s about doing the work, and making a difference – to be seen. Some acknowledge it and some don’t. But I can say I’ve given my best. That has got to mean something. We have to value ourselves. Yes, it’s hard, and so what? Don’t spend a whole bunch of time talking about how hard it is. Move on and do your best. Be a Mentor. Have a Mentor – male and female. Get to know other women. Join peer groups. Talk to people you can trust. Your performance proves who you are.
Mihu: How do you assess when and what is a good opportunity for growth? How did New Horizons, as a supplier to a single company (McDonald’s), grow its network, for example?
Bediako: We knew that it didn’t make a lot of sense to only have one customer, to have all the buns in one basket. When I first came on board, McDonald’s had a bakery council of about 12 US bakers, all family-owned businesses. Now, probably half of them are private equity owners. Things are changing. So we’re always looking to see what’s next. For example, Tyson Foods, who was already a customer of ours for English muffins, asked if we could produce pancakes for them. We had never produced pancakes before, but we learned. We researched and figured that the process was similar to English muffins. We worked together as a team on this project and now we’re making beautiful pancakes for them.
Mihu: What did that mean for you? Did you need to hire new people, invest in new equipment?
Bediako: All of that. We had to buy a new facility; it’s a multi-million dollar project. It’s a different process, which includes an inline freezer, since the product is frozen before it’s packaged, whereas buns and muffins are first packaged and then frozen. The equipment includes a unit counter to ensure that 230 pieces of frozen pancakes go in each box. There are a lot of great technologies there. Before any of these, we put down a business plan, of course, and assessed the costs and revenues.
With a new bun line and the pancake line installed, we’re on an accelerated growth path for the rest of the year. It’s about continuous improvement.That being said, my vision cannot outgrow my staff skills. I can’t just keep throwing new things at them. It’s unfair and not sustainable. So we continue training them. We created a people engagement team, a group of four people who assess the training needs, department by department. They help facilitate the culture, provide the resources, so people can get what they need to receive the change.
We’ve adjusted working schedules, too. In one of our facilities, for example, people work 10-hour shifts, four days a week. Our corporate office does three 12-hour shifts, so 36 hours, and they are off four days. That has increased productivity and improved morale. When my father worked, they had six- to seven-day work weeks. That doesn’t work anymore. We listened to the people and met them where they are. Alternative scheduling has been well received and successful.
New bakery
In 2025, New Horizons Baking Co opened its fourth bakery in Columbus, a 155,000 sq ft production facility. A high-speed bun production line was installed at the new location, followed by the company’s first pancake line.
The technology line-up at the new facility includes:
+ An air management glycol system, and a heat recovery system
+ AMF Bakery Systems mixing, makeup, proofer, oven, packaging equipment
+ A Campbell Systems dust collection solution
+ A Capway depanner
+ Fred D. Pfening Co. ingredient handling technology and silos
+ A Newsmith pan cleaner
+ Spraying Systems – glaze spraying system
The pancake line comprises:
+ CPM griddle
+ FPS freezer
+ Pattyn case packing
+ Rademaker system integration
Mihu: What’s next? And how do you prepare for scenarios where the environment might not support growth?
Bediako: Growth is not just optimism; there’s also a lot of cautiousness involved. We take a degree of calculated risk, of course. COVID taught us that you just can’t sit around and wait, though. We’ll assess the risk, but we have to grow, so I’m not afraid of taking controlled, educated risks. And you’re also limited by how much profit you have and by what the banks will support. So if I can’t afford plan A, then I need to do something different – sell, sell, sell!
Mihu: How is your leadership style compared to that of your father?
Bediako: He’s more risk-averse. And although he has a wonderful personality and is so good with people, the business has forced us to be more attuned on a different level, and to identify the changes in the food industry. That’s part of the reason we acquired an ingredient company. It’s food manufacturing, but it isn’t bread: everything you eat has to have a flavor. And the world is not just round and brown hamburgers anymore. People’s palates have changed. They’re eating differently. It’s spices and seasonings now, and we wanted be a part of it, so we had to get involved.
Mihu: What does your production facility map look like today?
Bediako: We have facilities in Ohio and Indiana: one in Norwalk, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio, two in Columbus, Ohio, and one in Fremont, Indiana. We manufacture our McDonald’s products as far north as Brampton, Ontario, and all the way down the East Coast to Georgia. And for our non-McDonald’s ranges, they are produced all the way to the West Coast. My home, my corporate office is in Norwalk, Ohio. I travel to our offices; I need to make sure they’re working well. I just love the progress. I love the growth.
We were around a USD 30 million business when I came in. It’s now grown to USD 200 million. We went from two facilities to five and from 185 employees to over 750. There’s been a lot of growth, and it’s been controlled growth.
Mihu: Are you considering expanding your portfolio?
Bediako: Maybe, but it has to be the right product at the right time. We’re all about growth; it’s the right thing to continue in business. Inflation tells you clearly that you’d better be growing if you want to be able to pay your bills. We don’t deny this in any way; on the contrary, we totally agree with it!
Mihu: Thank you for a very inspiring conversation!