Max Sullivan|Portsmouth Herald
YORK, Maine —The Broom brothers were kids when they developed a lifelong love for When Pigs Fly Breads. Now, they’re running the operation, partnering with the Siegel brothers who founded the company 29 years ago.
Grant Broom, 34, and his brother James, 33, have taken the helm respectively as CEO and president of the York-based bakery that started in 1993 and now runs out of its facility at 40 Brickyard Court. The Siegels, Ron and Andrew, are still owners overseeing the company but decided in the last year it was time to bring in new blood to keep their brand fresh and growing.
“Now I am a little older, I actually just don’t really have the ability to work as many hours as I used to,” Andrew Siegel said. “We hired them on to basically run day-to-day operations and to hopefully take the bakery to the next level, whatever that is.”
The Brooms say they are up for the challenge, having enjoyed the Siegel brothers’ bread growing up in New London, New Hampshire. They said their combined skillsets — one a former military officer, the other a marketing expert — go well with their passion as they look to make When Pigs Fly bigger than ever.
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“We know there’s so much opportunity within this business because people just absolutely love the product,” James Broom said. “We want to be able to get the brand out there, and the product out there, and into as many peoples’ mouths as humanly possible.”
From home kitchen to bread-making empire
Fifty varieties of bread line the shelves of When Pigs Fly’s stores like the one in Kittery, where the company also runs a pizzeria. Their products can also be found in grocery stores from Maine to Rhode Island, as well as some in New York and New Jersey where Whole Foods carries them. Other When Pigs Fly stores are located in Freeport, Maine, Newburyport, Massachusetts and in the Boston area.
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It’s an empire that started in the home kitchen of Ron Siegel, who had just left behind a career as a restaurateur to focus on sourdough bread-making. His family told him pigs would fly before the idea took off, according to James Broom, hence the name. After practicing at home, Ron Siegel moved into a small space in Wells, Maine, and started with 80 loaves of bread on his first day.
Andrew Siegel, who was living in California, tasted the bread and was so impressed he moved back to join his brother the following year. Over the next few years, they moved to a new location in York, then to a second location that became their current bakery off Route 1. Employees work shifts at all hours of the day to produce the bread, from the mixing and baking to slicing and packaging. Trucks leave the facility every morning to bring their products to grocery stores, the line of breads including creative flavors like chocolate, sundried tomato, spinach ciabatta and lemonade.
Bread fans to lead company
The Brooms have been dedicated fans of the bread since their childhood, as well as in their adult years.
“It’s always been my go-to panini bread,” James Broom said. “Once you eat it, you just fall in love with it.”
The Brooms both went to the University of New Hampshire and then went into different career paths, James into marketing, Grant as an officer in the Army flying Apache helicopters. Around the time Grant Broom was planning to leave the Army, the brothers began talking about how to join forces and work together.
“Because we have a different skill set, we decided it would be cool to find a company that had good bones, I guess you could say,” Grant Broom said.
The Brooms decided to work with SPUR Acquisitions, which pairs companies with candidates looking to fill leadership roles that will help their business grow. It was through SPUR that they connected with the Siegels, who were looking for someone new to take the reins of their established bread line.
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Andrew Siegel said it seemed fitting that two brothers would run the company almost 30 years after he and his brother got it started.
“Grant and James, they’re actually about the same age as Ron and I when we started the bakery,” Siegel said.
When Pigs Fly is growing and expanding reach
For the Brooms, running a company they have loved all their lives was a thrilling new adventure.
“It was kind of a no-brainer,” said James Broom. “We thought it would be an absolute blast.”
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James said he has plenty of experience discussing business strategy but is only this year learning the art of selling bread to a grocery store chain. Since becoming a partner, he said When Pigs Fly has gotten into 50 new grocery stores, some of the work involving pitching new products through tastings like their home-cook pizza dough.
“My whole life has been centered around, ‘This is the value prop,’ and ‘overcome these objections,’” James said, describing business terminology. “Now it’s like, ‘Here, eat this slice of pizza and let me know what you think.’ So, It’s very different, but an absolute blast to do.”
Andrew Siegel, who still enjoys daily hands-on work in the pizzeria, said it has been helpful with the Brooms now on board, especially with marketing. He said the When Pigs Fly Bread Instagram page had one post a month before the Brooms joined. Now, he sees posts daily, which he believes makes a big difference.
“If I didn’t trust them, I wouldn’t let them in the bakery,” said Andrew Siegel. “I 100 percent think they’re doing a great job.”
