As an international corporate group, BAKELS offers bakers & confectioners a wide range of over 2,000 innovative baking ingredients and application solutions, with tailored ingredients in the areas of bread, pastries, cakes, and confectionery.
Tailor-Made Solutions for Bakers – Bakery Ingredients Since 1904
As an international corporate group, BAKELS provides bakers and confectioners with a broad assortment of over 2,000 innovative baking ingredients and application solutions. BAKELS offers tailor-made ingredients for bread, pastries, cakes, and confectionery, including a wide range of flavors, decorations, colors, glazes, malts, functional grains, release agents, freshness enhancers, starches, and fruit fillings. With these products, the BAKELS Group supplies over 120 countries across all continents. Since its founding in Amsterdam in 1904, BAKELS has grown into a global company with 40 subsidiaries, now headquartered in Rothenburg, Switzerland.
A Strong Partner from Artisan Bakeries to Industrial Production
Since 1904, BAKELS has continuously grown and developed technologically while maintaining its passion for product innovation and close collaboration with its customers. These include master and artisan bakers, retail bakers, and industrial bakeries worldwide. BAKELS offers customized problem-solving, individual recipe development and optimization, personalized training and seminars, innovative product development, and inspiration for new applications. These services are refined in collaboration with customers at bakery and competence centers around the world, creating authentic products and tailored solutions complemented by flexible packaging sizes. Through comprehensive cooperation, BAKELS helps increase sales, enhance quality, and improve efficiency.
From a Family Business to a Global Partner
BAKELS has a history spanning 120 years, demonstrating that today’s global organization is not only a company rich in tradition with family roots but also a continuously growing and innovative partner to the bakery industry, always in tune with market demands.
Founded in 1904 under the name “Bakels Senior” by Hendrik Adrianus and Bernardus Johannes Bakels in Amsterdam, the company was initially a family-run business. Just 35 years later, Bernard J. Bakels Jr. founded "Nord Bakels" in Gothenburg, Sweden, in the second generation, supplying bakeries and confectioners with high-quality ingredients. This laid the foundation for numerous subsequent subsidiaries that strengthened the BAKELS Group’s growth and international presence, transforming the family business into a global partner.
After Bernard J. Bakels Jr.'s passing in 1986, the EMU Foundation was established to ensure the financial stability of the group—an essential milestone and pillar of BAKELS' long-term growth strategy. Today, the group comprises 40 subsidiaries worldwide.
Throughout its long history, BAKELS has achieved several key milestones, including specialized production sites such as “BAKELS Edible Oils,” which focuses on oil blends and fats. Additionally, acquisitions such as Aromatic and Nutribake have strengthened BAKELS’ position in the bakery ingredients and specialty bread markets. The purchase of the British company Renshaw in 2024 further expanded BAKELS’ expertise in decorations.
From Aromatic to BAKELS Germany
Since 2012, the company Aromatic has been part of the BAKELS Group. The originally Swedish specialist for bakery ingredients is globally renowned for its high-quality products. Founded in Stockholm in 1936, Aromatic quickly expanded into the European market after World War II. As bakery product demands increased over the years, Aromatic responded with innovative product developments for the industry. In 1955, Aromatic revolutionized the bakery market with its Alpha-Gel emulsifier JILK, gaining worldwide recognition. Today, its German site, including a bakery center, is located in Berlin.
Competence and Bakery Centers – Thinking Globally, Working Locally
As a technology-driven company, BAKELS supports its customers in developing, manufacturing, and distributing bakery products. To this end, six competence centers and 14 bakery centers have been established worldwide. The competence centers are located in Sweden, the UK, New Zealand, Belgium, and Switzerland. The bakery centers are spread across the world, from Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Belgium to Malaysia and Chile.
At the competence centers, BAKELS provides its expertise, technical product knowledge, production experience, and research and development capabilities to other companies within the group. These centers work closely together to continuously improve BAKELS’ product range and offer high-quality solutions to customers worldwide. Collectively, these operational units provide a constantly expanding portfolio of over 2,000 products.
The bakery centers are state-of-the-art facilities where highly skilled teams of application specialists and food engineers collaborate closely with customers to develop tailor-made solutions. From baking trials for artisan bakers to training programs for retail bakery staff, these facilities offer comprehensive development solutions. The inspiring atmosphere encourages innovation, and advanced technology is used to accelerate product development and test different production processes.
Each BAKELS location is a highly professional and technologically advanced center dedicated to supporting bakery and confectionery customers in their craft, developing innovative products, and offering extensive training programs. With a wide range of baking facilities, resources, and expertise available at these centers, they serve as essential hubs for bakeries and food manufacturers worldwide.
As an international corporate group, BAKELS offers bakers and confectioners a wide range of over 2,000 innovative baking ingredients and application solutions. With tailored ingredients, some available in palm-free or ecologically certified versions, BAKELS serves the bread, pastry, cake, and confectionery sectors across multiple product categories:
Flavors and Colors
With BAKELS' food colors and flavors, customers can give their baked goods an appealing look and delicious taste. The natural colors allow for vibrant creations and unique products that leave a lasting impression on consumers. The wide selection of flavors enhances baked goods with sophisticated taste profiles. They are available in various versions: free from colorants, with AZO-free colorants, with AZO colorants, and natural flavors with AZO colorants.
Bread and Rolls
BAKELS baking mixes allow for the quick and easy preparation of a wide variety of customized baked goods, ranging from bread rolls and baguettes to fiber-rich seed mixtures and soy-free baked goods suitable for people with allergies. BAKELS offers high-quality baking agents for wheat-based small breads and milk rolls, mixes for multi-seed and flatbreads, as well as different sourdough variants with mild to intense flavors. These enable effortless and time-efficient production while bringing out the distinctive sourdough taste.
BAKELS baking agents improve process reliability during dough preparation and handling while optimizing dough quality and maximizing baking performance. Their use makes dough more elastic, enhances stability and fermentation tolerance, and results in optimal volume, improved crumb texture, and extended freshness of the final product.
Decorations
The all-purpose fondant "JUST ROLL WITH IT" from Renshaw by Bakels is highly versatile and has a delicious vanilla flavor. It is perfect for covering cakes, creating 3D designs, and making simple models. Available in over 20 different colors, it allows for creative freedom.
Another product is the Creamy Caramel Vegan, which has a creamy, buttery, and authentic caramel flavor. Its soft and smooth texture makes it ideal for filling pralines, pastries, and cakes.
Additionally, Renshaw by Bakels offers three marzipan products: Renshaw Marzipan W/O, Renmac Persipan, and Renmarz Marzipan Raw Mass.
Fine Baked Goods
This category includes baking powders, alpha-gel emulsifiers, mixes, and baking agents. These products are known for their ability to increase the volume of baked goods and enhance baking stability. At the same time, they create a fine texture and prolong freshness. Due to their concentration, only a small dosage is needed to achieve excellent results while saving costs.
With the Cheesecake Dream baking mix from BAKELS, both traditional German cheesecakes and classic New York cheesecakes can be made, depending on the ingredients used.
Freshness Enhancers
BAKELS freshness enhancers extend the freshness of baked goods and slow down mold growth. The highly effective K-Series freshness enhancers are preservative-free and suitable for a variety of soft cakes. As liquid products, they retain moisture, keeping cakes soft and fresh for longer. Their low pH value makes them significantly more effective than powdered alternatives.
The K-Series includes the following products:
Glazes and Coatings
BAKELS’ wide range of glazes and coatings offers easy-to-use solutions with versatile applications. Ready-to-use glazes create an attractive shine on pastries while protecting them from drying out. Truffle cream is used as a topping, filling, or decoration for baked goods and provides a rich flavor.
Fondants are available in different colors as powders and ready-to-use rolled fondant. They are perfect for covering cakes, cookies, and cupcakes, as well as for modeling and decorating.
Malts and Functional Grains
Customers can choose from various grains, grind levels, and particle sizes to create their ideal product. The range includes TTT products (where TTT stands for the Swedish words "pressure, temperature, and time"), functional flours and grains, and authentic roasted malts made from barley and rye.
The natural TTT products, available in various grind levels, are made from wheat, spelt, oats, barley, and rye. They increase dough yield, extend shelf life, and maintain freshness.
BAKELS malts are known for their aromatic and authentic malty flavor. Made from malted grains, they are ideal for baked goods made from low-maltose grain varieties.
Starches and Fruit Fillings
The range of starches and fruit fillings includes cold juice binders, instant starch, and the Les-Fruits line. While the starches and binders thicken cold liquids like juice to create fruit fillings, the Les-Fruits range is ready-to-use and available in a variety of flavors—from classic fruit varieties like cherry and apple to exotic flavors such as Mocktail Piña Colada and Strawberry Daiquiri.
These fruit fillings can be incorporated into products in various ways—pure, refined with whipped cream, or as mousse—offering endless possibilities for fruity baked goods. BAKELS starches and fruit fillings are easy to process, resistant to baking, freezing, and thawing, and provide a pleasant, smooth mouthfeel in the final product.
Release Agents
In addition to baking ingredients, BAKELS also provides solutions in the field of release agents. These include specialty oils and release agents such as Tarant and Bandex, which are used for greasing baking trays and molds, as well as for steel conveyor belts. They prevent sticking and buildup and can restore old steel belts to near-new condition.
BAKELS release agents are highly efficient and, therefore, sustainable. The specialty oils come in various versions, including palm-free and ecological products, RSPO-MB certified release agents, and release agents derived from sources like rapeseed or sunflower.
