The owner-operators of a Sussex bakery are forming a new company to serve the northeastern United States.

Blair and Rosalyn Hyslop of Mrs. Dunster’s announced Friday the pending acquisition of Koffee Kup and its subsidiaries, The Vermont Bread Company and Superior Bakery. The assets will be leased in the short-term while the assets are formally transferred.

The new company, called North Atlantic Baking Company, will be based in Burlington, Vermont, while Mrs. Dunster’s will continue its current operations, distributing baked goods to Atlantic Canada and Maine.

“We’ve been in Maine for a long, long time,” Blair Hyslop said. “When Rosalyn and I bought this business seven years ago, we thought, “We do so well in Maine that there’s got to be an opportunity in New England.”

Mrs. Dunster’s co-owners and co-CEOs, Blair and Rosalyn Hyslop

Mrs. Dunster’s had been in talks with Koffee Kup “for a while” about sharing their distribution channels, he said, but when Koffee Kup entered receivership about a month ago, the opportunity presented itself. He said he expects a smooth transition but there’s still work ahead.

“We’ve been very fortunate in that most of the major customers are interested in having us back,” he said. “But we’ve got a lot of work to do in terms of getting things ready and getting distribution set up and so on.”

Hyslop added that he expects the new assets to be up and running in six-to-eight weeks thanks to the lease agreement, which will allow North Atlantic Baking to quickly get its employees back to work and its products, including Koffee Kup’s signature crueller, delivered to customers across New England.

The Hyslops will become the co-owners and co-CEOs of the new U.S. company and will continue to run Mrs. Dunster’s, which has become famous across Atlantic Canada for its donuts, cookies, bread and other baked goods. In a news release last week, Rosalyn Hyslop expressed her excitement about the newly acquired brands.

“We are excited to see the company once again become family owned,” she said. “We already deliver our fresh baked goods to every store in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and the state of Maine several times a week with Mrs. Dunster’s and have dreamed for many years of expanding our reach to the rest of New England. We are ready to devote our experience, passion and resources to this project, and are excited to work with these talented and experienced employees in a positive, family-oriented workspace.” •

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